Home in Place Finds 11,595 Central Coast Renters Face Housing Crisis
Home in Place says 11,595 Central Coast residents aged 55 to 69 are renters now facing a housing crisis as retirement approaches. The survey points to a group that is still paying private rent while many are already cutting back on essentials.
Of the 772 renters surveyed, 52 per cent said they were already cutting back on groceries and social connection, and 25 per cent said they were cutting healthcare and medication. Martin Kennedy, Home in Place Group Executive Manager, Marketing and Public Affairs, said the findings showed a system built around home ownership no longer fits many older renters.
Martin Kennedy on retirement
“Our system assumes people will have low housing costs in later life because they will have paid off a mortgage,” Kennedy said. “But there are at least 750,000 Australians who will hit retirement age in the next decade who are not homeowners; that is a recipe for disaster.”
He said the problem is larger than the Central Coast sample. “What we pretend is true in Australia is that by the time you reach retirement you will own your home and have very few housing costs,” he said. “The pension assumes it; the superannuation system assumes it – our entire housing policy apparatus assumes it.”
Central Coast renters 55 to 69
The survey of 772 renters found 18 per cent do not believe they will ever retire, while 27 per cent expect major financial stress in retirement. Just 8 per cent expect a comfortable retirement, and 34 per cent said their superannuation would last less than five years if they had to rely on it while renting.
The rent burden is already high for many in the group. Home in Place said six in 10 currently spend more than 30 per cent of their income on rent, and one in three spend more than 40 per cent. Almost three-quarters, 73 per cent, worry about becoming housing insecure in later life, and one in five already feel insecure in their current home.
Australian Taxation Office figures
Kennedy also pointed to Australian Taxation Office figures showing the median superannuation balance for people in this age bracket is between $170,000 and $210,000. He said median rent alone in any capital city will absorb that amount in less than a decade.
For older renters on the Central Coast, the immediate pressure is already visible in what they are giving up now. The survey suggests the next test is whether retirement income settings can stretch far enough for people who reach that stage still paying rent.
