Attitudes towards total housing cost burden

One of the questions asked aimed to ascertain the opinions of respondents about their total regular housing costs in relation to their household income. Only 0.6% of the respondents answered that they found their total regular housing costs very low in relation to the income of their household; 2.9% stated that they are quite low. Almost one half of the respondents (48.3%) who answered believed that the total regular housing costs were adequate in relation to the income of their household, 36.4% held the opinion that their housing costs were quite high and 11.9% respondents declared that their housing costs were very high in relation to the income of their household.

Hypothetically, we can propose three major groups of factors that bear on the respondents' view of the regular housing cost-to-income ratio. Let the first group include factors that influence the housing costs of the household; let the second group include factors that influence the total household income and let the third group include factors we decided to identify as characteristics of the respondent and his or her household.

There is a link between the tenure and the total average costs a household spends monthly on housing. Let us presume four basic categories of tenure - ownership housing (whether of family houses or individually owned flats), collective ownership housing (members of co-operatives or other legal entities functioning on a similar basis as co-operatives), rental housing and another tenures (sub-lessees, people living in guesthouses, lodging houses, people living in social care homes and people with another legal basis of use). On average, the greatest absolute housing costs are sustained by tenants, followed by co-operative owners, people in other tenures and owners (see Figure 9). However, the only statistically significant difference was recorded between the absolute average housing costs of tenants and owners, with the housing costs of the former being much higher.

On average, the highest total monthly housing costs per m² of the total floor space of a flat/house are paid by people in other tenures, followed by tenants, co-operative owners and, lagging far behind, owners. Differences in the housing costs per m² of the total floor space of a flat are statistically significant between all forms of tenures with the exception of tenants and co-operative owners. The situation is similar when we relate the total housing costs to the number of m² of the floor space of the habitable rooms. Moreover, it becomes clear (see Figure 10) that if we compare the regular total housing costs per m² of the floor space of the habitable rooms in individual size categories of municipalities, in all cases people living in other tenures pay on average the highest housing costs, followed by tenants, co-operative owners and owners.

Questions: What is the average amount that your household spend monthly for housing? What was the amount that your household spent for housing last year? (average monthly expenditures). What is the total habitable floor area of your flat/house?
Notice: municipality size – countryside (population of less than 5,000), town (population of 5,000 - 100,000), city (population of more than 100,000).
Source: 2001 Attitudes towards Housing in the CR Survey. N = 2,588.

Since, on average, tenants have the highest housing costs and since it was proven that with growing housing costs the percentage of respondents who assess their housing costs in relation to the household income as quite high or very high also grows, then we could logically assume that the percentage of people with such an opinion will be higher among tenants. And accurately, the percentage of people who answered that the total housing costs seem to them quite high or very high in relation to the household income was the greatest among tenants (59.7%); 57% of people in other tenures hold the same opinion, followed by 50.4% of co-operative owners and only 42.4% of owners.

While among respondents living in municipalities with a population below 5,000 the average rank of the "index of dissatisfaction" (the higher the value, the stronger the feeling that the housing costs are very high in relation to the income) used to assess the total housing costs in relation to the household income does not differ according to tenure, in towns and cities statically significant differences were recorded between respondents in different tenures (see Figure 15).

Summary: When looking for an answer to the question what factors influence the opinions of respondents concerning the regular total housing costs in relation to the income of their households, not surprisingly it was proven that people with higher housing costs stated more often that the housing costs seemed to them quite high or very high in relation to the income of their household. It was revealed that, on average, tenants followed by co-operative owners have the highest absolute housing costs; when we examine the highest relative housing costs (per m²), people in other tenures (sub-lessees, people living in guesthouses, lodging houses etc.) followed by tenants have the highest housing costs (per m²) regardless of the size of the municipality. Although the tenure is closely related to the type of construction, it was discovered that among owners people living in dwelling in detached family houses in the countryside and among tenants people living in high-rise buildings in housing projects considered the housing costs to be high in relation to the income of their households. It was also proven that people living in larger municipalities assess their housing costs in relation to the household income as high more often and that this phenomenon is not a consequence of a different structure of the housing stock in towns and in villages.

The assessment of the total housing costs to the household income is obviously contingent upon the income situation of households, which is related to the number of economically active people and the type of economic activity of household members. While the influence of the number of economically active members was not clearly proven, the number of people who said that the housing costs were high in relation to the household income was particularly high among unemployed people and pensioners while entrepreneurs, self-employed people and liberal professionals were most frequently those who considered the housing costs to be adequate or low in relation to the household income. People with higher income are also far more liberal than people with low income and therefore their percentage among voters of right-wing political parties is higher.

Respondents who stated that they considered the regular total housing costs to be quite or very high in relation to their household income were also asked what their household did to solve this situation. As Table 5 shows the most frequent measure a household dealing with a high housing cost-to-income ratio takes is to reduce power consumption, reduce expenses in other areas than housing, overtime work or another employment, withdrawal of savings, financial aid of family members or friends and a submission of an application for a housing allowance.

Housing Standards 2002/03: Financial Affordability and Attitudes towards Housing

4. People's opinions about the housing cost burden

4.1 Attitudes towards total housing cost burden