Using ABS Household Expenditure Survey statistics, this study finds, among other things, that real housing costs in Australia increased substantially (32.9 per cent) over the period 1975-99. Purchasers experienced the biggest cost increase (66.2 per cent), followed by private tenants (24 per cent) and outright owners (21 per cent), with public tenants having the smallest increase (3 per cent). Even allowing for changes in the composition of households, the real income of public tenants fell by 28.7 per cent, and low income private tenants by 9.5 per cent. The study outlines a number of options for dealing with these findings.