Couples aged over 65 with own home are the ‘richest Australians’
Hilda is a name derived from an old Norse word meaning ‘battle’ and HILDA is an acronym for research into household wealth which fired up its own intergenerational stoush this week.
The researchers at the University of Melbourne unveiled their latest data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia, or Hilda, survey of 17,000 Australians.
The headline findings were the declining rate of home ownership, mostly blamed on ballooning prices, with the proportion of owner occupied homes dropping from 69% in 2001 to 65% in 2014.
On the individual level almost 52% of all those aged over 18 now own a home, down from 57% in 2002, and the report predicts in the near future less than half of adults will be home owners.
It led to a number of agencies, including the FiftyUp Club, to call for a housing affordability summit to find out why fewer Australians own their own home and what might be done about it.
The reasons are of course numerous: an undersupply of houses, foreign investors, some argue negative gearing, the policy settings which encourage older Australians to stay put in their homes etc
But in between the figures there was good news at least for some older Australians. In the words of a former British prime minister it could be said they’ve “Never had it so good.”
For example the report found:
*80% of homes headed by someone aged 65 and up are owner occupied. For 25-34 year olds the figure is 47%.
*The household wealth of those aged over 65 grew by almost a quarter between 2006-2014 from $535,000 to $656,000. But for those households headed by those aged under 54 their wealth grew smaller.
*In real terms house prices have risen by 90% since 2001 and couples aged 65+ who’d bought their own home could be considered the ‘richest Australians’
*And the mean value of superannuation accounts rose from $112,000 in 2002 to $186,000 in 2014 putting super only second to the home as the most valuable family asset.
Of course not all of those aged 65 and over are this well-off and most have children and grandchildren who are struggling with home affordability and other cost-of-living pressures.
History might have been kind to this older cohort but now, as the chill winds of budget deficits and downturns blow down the national neck, expect a real Hilda-style battle about the distribution of this accumulated wealth.
