Developing a conceptual framework of living cost to income approach for depicting affordable housing locations: Policy implications for housing affordability in Melbourne, Australia

Affordable housing locations in metropolitan cities are usually assessed by rental cost or mortgage payment relative to income. Affordable housing locations are also influenced by locational characteristics such as distance from public transportation, service centres, city centre and employment centres. Once the costs of locational amenities such as public transport and basic services are focused in, rental price or median house price is increased, sometimes making these locations unaffordable. This paper develops a conceptual framework of living cost to income approach to examine relative changes in affordable housing locations in Melbourne. The conceptual framework is a method to identify changes in affordable housing locations but it also identifies as policy implications of living cost to income approach of analysing housing affordability in Melbourne as well as in other large metropolitan cities in Australia.