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The dream of owning a home in Australia is far out of reach for many people. Australia needs more private investments to meet the estimated affordable housing demand as the conventional funding sources like bank loans become further restricted. Responsible investment is an emerging potential source of finance for the affordable housing sector. However, the shortage of information on the risks, returns, and impact evidence regarding the affordable housing submarket and the lack of dedicated investment models, make it difficult to attract investors to promote much needed affordable homeownership opportunities in Australia. Therefore, the overriding objectives of this thesis are to reduce the information gap of investors relating to the affordable housing submarkets, and to examine innovative financial models that connect investors with the affordable housing sector in Australia. The underlining hypothesis of this thesis is that the residential housing market in Australia has attributes that are attractive to responsible investors. With these objectives and hypothesis, the thesis examined the following overarching research questions (RQ) under three interrelated studies. RQ1: Why are there differences in risks and returns of residential housing assets in different price cohorts and regions? RQ2: What are the significant characteristics of the affordable housing markets in Australia that are attractive to responsible investors? RQ3: Is shared equity homeownership a viable mechanism to increase the homeownership rate among young and low-income people? Three empirical studies were conducted under each research question., Thesis (PhD Doctorate), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Dept Account,Finance & Econ, Griffith Business School, Full Text

The affordability of urban housing has become an important issue for academics and policymakers. The rental housing sector in Australia continues to be ranked as one of the most unaffordable in the developed world (The 15th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey), and thus it requires further investigation to improve the situation. Housing affordability measures such as the ratio and residual income methods do not explicitly identify the household segment(s) where affordability stress is most severe. This thesis undertakes three studies to test a new approach for analysing housing affordability focusing on the housing rental sector, namely a whole-of-life approach (WOLA). WOLA is based on a family life cycle concept. This approach incorporates a comprehensive tool to analyse housing affordability along the different stages of the family life cycle, considering all non-housing consumption expenditures (both basic and discretionary) necessary for healthy living. WOLA identifies the household segments with the most severe affordability stress and is applied to the emerging build-to-rent (i.e. the development, professional management, and control of large-scale residential property by institutional investors and developers specifically for the renter market) asset class in housing supply. This thesis aims to examine the question: Can the whole-of-life approach and build-to-rent strategy provide solutions to rental housing affordability challenges in Australia?, Thesis (PhD Doctorate), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Dept Account,Finance & Econ, Griffith Business School, Full Text