Housing diversity within a community provides people with housing choices. It considers the different types of housing available and looks at how a diverse choice of housing can reflect the needs and preferences of households.
This page lists key resources that can be used to understand the different types of housing available and the different housing choices and preferences in NSW. They include data on existing household dwelling types and tenures the number of other types of housing.
The NSW Housing Strategy highlights diversity as one of the 4 pillars of the housing system. The strategy sets a vision for a housing supply that is diverse, meeting the varied and changing needs of people across their life.
Housing datasets
The Demography and Housing Dashboard is undergoing review to incorporate new data releases. If you would like to be notified when it is updated please register your interest via email at [email protected]
This dataset is a list of boarding houses in NSW as registered with the NSW Department of Fair Trading.
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Access the Fair Trading public register data. |
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No visualisation available. |
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This dataset covers:
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| Key terms |
Boarding house: a type of residential rental accommodation provided for a fee. Usually a resident only has a right to occupy a room and may share other facilities such as a kitchen or bathroom. Boarding houses often provide a form of low–cost rental accommodation for a wide range of tenants. Boarding houses can be leased under occupancy agreements or through a residential agreement. They must be registered if they accommodate five or more residents (general) or accommodate two or more residents with additional needs (assisted). General boarding house; has five or more paying residents. General boarding houses do not include hotels, motels, backpackers’ hostels, aged care homes or other types of premises excluded by the Boarding Houses Act 2012. Assisted boarding house; accommodates 2 or more persons with additional needs. A person with additional needs has a disability such as an age–related frailty; a mental illness and/or an intellectual, psychiatric, sensory or physical disability, and needs support or supervision with daily tasks and personal care such as showering, preparing meals or managing medication. |
| Usage notes |
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| Source | NSW Department of Fair Trading. |
| Last updated | This information was last updated in April 2021. |
Related resources
Other housing pillars
The department acknowledges that the diversity of housing is fundamentally linked to the other key pillars of housing; supply, affordability and resilience. It should be considered alongside these areas of information.
Community profile
When planning for housing diversity, it is important to consider how different groups within a community have different needs and preferences for certain types of housing. Current and future measures of population and the community profile are good starting indicators for understanding housing diversity.
NSW population projections: See the department's population, household and implied dwelling projections for NSW. They paint a picture of NSW’s population, including how old people are likely to be and where in NSW they are likely to live, as well as the type of households and living arrangements they’re likely to be living in. The data is available at local government area level.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data by region: The ABS presents a range of information by most areas on people and families, including age and education, cultural and language diversity, need for assistance, household composition and employment. Data is sourced from the Census of Population and Housing (a count of every person and home in Australia) data for 2011 and 2016, and various data for 2014 to 2019.
Aboriginal community portraits: Community portraits on Aboriginal communities for local government areas from NSW Aboriginal Affairs.
Multicultural community profile: Includes information on ancestry, place of birth and year of arrival, languages spoken at home, religion and English proficiency.
Income and social health and wellbeing
Information about household income can inform current understandings of housing diversity in an area, as well as the delivery of diverse housing to suit local needs. Current measures of household income and social health and wellbeing are good indicators for understanding the need for diverse housing.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data by region: The ABS presents a range of information on household income, including median household income, select government pensions and allowances (such as the age pension or rental assistance) and a measure of housing stress. Data is sourced from the Census of Population and Housing (a count of every person and home in Australia) data for 2011 and 2016, and various data for 2014 to 2019.
Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA): The SEIFA are 4 measures produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics that ranks areas according to relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage. It is based on information from the Census. The ABS broadly defines relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage in terms of people's access to material and social resources and their ability to participate in society. This was last released for 2016.