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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Use of housing wealth by older Australians | | Author(s) | Diana J Beal |
| Journal title | Australasian Journal on Ageing, vol 20, no 3, September 2001 |
| Pages | pp 127-132 |
| Keywords | Housing [elderly] ; Retirement ; Assets [elderly] ; Attitude ; Social surveys ; Australia. |
| Annotation | Australians have long skewed their investment portfolios towards personal housing, that the rate of owner occupation is one of the highest in the world. Some 85% of over 65s in Australia own their own houses, and the wealth represented by housing constitutes 50% of assets held by the household sector. However, housing wealth is not generally being realised to fund more comfortable retirements. This paper reports a preliminary study - based on a random sample of Australians from two electorates - into current community attitudes towards using housing wealth more "wisely" in retirement. About half of the surveyed home-owners indicated that they would be willing to use their housing wealth to fund more comfortable retirements. Only a small proportion - predominantly the 65-74 age group - reported a desire to leave their homes as legacies to their children. 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. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-020228203 A |
| Classmark | KE: G3: JD: DP: 3F: 7YA |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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