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Rental Housing Provision for Lower Income Older Australians – do affordable rental villages show the way?
 

George Earl, Bond University
Completion Year: 2007
  

Project Summary

A new policy approach is required to meet the anticipated increase in demand for affordable rental housing for lower-income older Australians during the next two decades.

A projected increase of 115% from 2001-2006 in the number of lower income people aged 65 and over living in rental households far exceeds the supply capacity of the social housing system.

A new governance approach drawing together the resources of the public, community and market sectors is required to ensure satisfactory housing outcomes for older, low-income renters.
 

Key Points

  • Australia is on the threshold of sustained increase in the number of lower-income, older renters. The number of people aged 65 and over living in lower-income rental households is projected to increase by 115 per cent from 195,000 in 2001 to 419,000 in 2026. The greatest projected change is in the 85 and over age range where the number of low-income renters is estimated to increase by 194 per cent from 17,300 to 51,000.
  • This will create a strong and continuing demand for rental housing suited to older, lower-income, sole person households. These households are projected to grow in number from 110,800 to 243,600, an increase of 120 per cent from 2001 to 2026. Approximately two-thirds of these households will be sole women. There will also be growing demand for rental housing suited to older, lower-income couple households, which are projected to increase from 32,200 to 69,900, an increase of 117 per cent.
  • Provision of suitable housing for this population group is required to enable them to ‘age well’. The core housing attributes valued by older renters include autonomy, security, social connectivity, amenity, adaptability and affordability. These vales provide a generic set of criteria for assessing the suitability of housing arrangements and designs for older renters.
  • There is great diversity of housing experience, need and p[reference amongst older renters. Housing provision must respond to a diversity of experience and preference amongst older renters. Four broad ‘housing pathways’ into older-age renting can be distinguished. Some older renters are long-term tenants; others are forced through adverse circumstances into rental housing; others choose to move into age-specific rental housing; and some are those marginally attached to housing. Housing provision must respond to this diversity of experience and preference.
  • The social housing system is unlikely to be able to adequately respond alone to these demands from older renters due to the lack of growth in the sector and the competing claims of other population groups. Older people will continue to constitute a high proportion of tenants in the social housing system, but a steadily increasing proportion of low-income older households will be renting in the market sector.
  • In this context, greater policy attention should be paid to the potential of the market sector in terms of both investment and direct provision. Planned market sector investment in and/or provision of affordable rental housing for older people may constitute an important, complementary source of supply to the social housing system.
  • A new governance approach is required that draws together the resources of the public, community and market sectors. All sectors must be mobilised as part of an integrated system to meet the housing need of older renters.

 

The purpose of this research report is to scope current and emerging housing policy issues associated with this population group, and to identify policy and research questions to address their housing needs.

In doing so, the project also seeks to contribute to the development of a national strategy for the housing of all older Australians.
Rental housing provision for lower-income older Australians was authored by Andrew Jones, Martin Bell, Cheryl Tilse and Prof George Earl for the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), Queensland Research Centre, May 2007.
 

AHURI Ltd is an independent, non-political body which ahs supported this project as part of its programme of research into housing and urban development, which it hopes will be of value to policy-makers, researchers, industry and communities. This project was funded from the Australian government and the Australian States and Territories.