Housing Affordability of Private Rental Apartments According to Room Type in Osaka Prefecture

Abstract

Housing poverty was already a social problem in Japan before the COVID-19 pandemic. The research questions of this study were as follows: How many private rental apartments that are affordable for low-income groups exist in the real estate market? Additionally, do these rental apartments have enough rooms? This study aimed to clarify the housing affordability of private rental apartments in Osaka Prefecture according to room type. In this study, we analyzed housing affordability based on room types and housing conditions using a real estate dataset. In conclusion, this study found that housing affordability is problematic in terms of quantity and quality among the private rental apartments for multiple households in Osaka Prefecture. Additionally, it was found that the role of old wooden low-rent housingbuildings has declined as affordable housing. In particular, the total number of two-room and over three-room-type low-rent housing was less than 8000 units, accounting for only 4.2% of all private rental apartments in the real estate market. The distributed supply of low-rent housing has potential risks in maintaining a stable life for low-income groups with multi-person households. Those low-income groups are forced to live in higher-rent housing or one-room-type low-rent housing.