High housing costs Households paying 30% or more of their disposable household income on housing costs 60 Percent Year ended June 1988 — 2020 50 Homeowners Renters Total households 40 30 20 10 Moving average 0 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 Data from the Household Economic Survey, Stats NZ Error bars represent variability in estimates Survey run 3 yearly between 1998 and 2007 maintenance). Homeowners are more likely than tenants to find their housing affordable but it’s becoming less affordable to buy a first home. This increase in housing costs indicates a violation of the right to decent home, unless there is a compelling explanation or justification. We have identified three indicators that help us to measure affordability in Aotearoa: • Home ownership (the proportion of households that own their own dwelling) • High housing costs (the percentage of households that spend 30% or more of their disposable household income on housing costs) • Self-rated affordability (the proportion of people rating their housing affordability as 3 out of 10 or worse). This is just one of the indicators for assessing affordability. More information about the results of the other indicators is available on our website, along with an explanation of what that means for housing in Aotearoa. Using these indicators, we have assessed that affordability has not improved. For example, the overall trend of households with high housing costs has been upward since the 1980s; the percentage of total households with housing costs more than 30% of their household income has more than doubled, increasing from 12% in 1988 to almost a third in 2018. Housing affordability is more challenging for renters than existing homeowners. For Māori, and other ethnicities, including Pacific peoples, the data indicates that they face even higher rates of unaffordable housing. 28 Human Rights Commission Overall, the indicators show that there has not been progressive realisation in this dimension of the right to a decent home, and instead things have got worse. Housing is less affordable than it used to be. Measuring Progress therefore shows a failure in the affordability dimension of the right to a decent home. Throughout 2022, we will release data indicators that relate to different dimensions of the right to a decent home, and explanations of what that data means for this human right. We will also update Measuring Progress with ratings for these other dimensions of the right to a decent home. This will help to measure whether the right to a decent home is progressively improving for everyone in Aotearoa.