24630 – APN Intergenerational Housing-Cost Divergence Index™

The APN Intergenerational Housing-Cost Divergence Index™ reads whether housing costs are rising faster for older households than for working-age households: growth over the year in the housing costs of age pensioner households less growth in the housing costs of employee households. A higher reading means housing costs are rising faster for age pensioner households.

It reads living costs, not wealth: who carries housing cost pressure, measured as the outlays each household type makes. It is a national time series, quarterly, and sits in the APN Net State Position™ branch (24600) without yet entering its composite.

The Housing group covers rents, utilities such as electricity, gas and water, property rates and charges, and repairs and maintenance. It does not include mortgage interest, which the ABS publishes separately and which Mortgage Cost Pressure (21243) reads. Each household type’s index weights these costs by what that household type spends, so the same price change moves the two indexes by different amounts. The difference in growth rates is standardised against its 2011–2025 history.

Over the year to June 2026, the housing costs of age pensioner households rose 3.64 points faster than those of employee households. Across all living costs the gap was smaller, 1.03 points: employee households also carry mortgage interest, whose charges rose 2.77% over the year, less than their living costs overall.

From 2008 to mid-2023 the two household types’ housing costs grew at similar rates, the gap staying between −0.99 and +2.11 points. From the September quarter 2023 the gap swung widely. Energy bill rebates for concession households from July 2023 lowered the measured electricity costs of age pensioners, and the gap reached −7.06 points in the March quarter 2024, the lowest on record, when age pensioners’ housing costs were 0.18% lower than a year earlier and employee households’ 6.88% higher. Rebates applied to all households from July 2024. As they were used up, the housing costs of age pensioner households rose most, because electricity is a larger share of their spending: the gap reached +6.56 points in the March quarter 2026, the highest on record, and +3.64 points in June 2026.

• Measured net of government assistance. The ABS measures prices net of energy rebates and Commonwealth Rent Assistance, so changes to rebates and rent assistance move the reading. Since 2023 they account for most of its movement.
• Living costs, not wealth. The index compares the housing outlays of two household types. It does not measure home ownership, housing wealth or transfers between generations.
• Two household types. Age pensioner households stand for older households and employee households for working-age households. Self-funded retiree households follow the same pattern as age pensioners (correlation 0.96 across all living costs).
• Mortgage interest excluded. The Housing group does not include mortgage interest, which Mortgage Cost Pressure (21243) reads. Across all living costs, the gap between the two household types is driven mostly by mortgage interest.
• Not yet a component. The index sits in the Net State Position branch but does not enter its composite; joining it would change the branch reading and is assessed separately.

The components of the APN Net State Position™ (24600).