The City of Merri-bek's Housing Tenure data provides insights into its socio-economic status as well as the role it plays in the housing market.

Looking at tenure for specific age groups provides additional information about the housing role and function, which may be quite different for different age groups. For instance, an inner city area may house predominantly young people, while the elderly are concentrated in public housing. Alternatively, the older population may overwhelmingly own their homes outright, while younger generations are renting due to lack of affordability.

In conjunction with other socio-economic status indicators in the City of Merri-bek, Tenure data is useful for analysing housing markets, housing affordability and identifying public housing areas. It should be looked at alongside Household Type and Dwelling Type.

Please note that the ABS definition of "Rented" in 2021 changed to exclude "Occupied Rent Free", which is now included under "Other tenure type". Please take care when comparing the "Rented" and "Other" categories between 2016 and 2021; most age groups show some increase in the "Other" category due to the definitional change. This represents a very small proportion of the population and has minimal effect on the overall view of tenure by age.

It is also worth remembering that because this table counts individuals, there is no assumption that any particular individual pays the rent or mortgage.