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Use of Housing Wealth by Older Australians
Author(s) -
Beal Diana J.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
australasian journal on ageing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 1741-6612
pISSN - 1440-6381
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-6612.2001.tb01774.x
Subject(s) - investment (military) , government (linguistics) , sample (material) , business , older people , demographic economics , economics , political science , gerontology , medicine , politics , philosophy , linguistics , chemistry , chromatography , law
Book reviews in this article: Purpose : Australians have long skewed their investment portfolios towards personal housing, so much so that the rate of owner‐occupation of housing is one of the highest in the world. About 85% of people over 65 years of age own their houses, and the wealth represented by housing constitutes 50% of assets held by the household sector. Housing wealth, however, is not generally realised to fund more comfortable retirements. This paper reports a preliminary study into current community attitudes towards using housing wealth more ‘wisely’ in retirement. Method : The research was conducted by a survey of a random sample of Australians from two electorates. Results : About half of surveyed home‐owners indicated they would be willing to use their housing wealth to fund more comfortable retirements. Only a small proportion, predominantly the 65–74 year olds, reported a desire to leave their houses as legacies to their children. Conclusion : Community attitudes and government policy in the past have mitigated against the use of housing wealth to fund more comfortable retirements. However, community attitudes appear to be changing slowly. Governments, too, are starting to amend inconsistent policy and to remove impediments. More research is necessary to guide facilitation.