Australia is now a “home owner’s welfare state”, leading economists argue, and if the tax treatment of housing were reformed, the nation as a whole would benefit.<\/p>\n
The research calculated that a typical single retiree who rented required $659,000 in super to ensure a financially secure future, compared to $322,000 for a retiree who occupied their own mortgage-free property.<\/p>\n
A couple renting would need a combined $786,000 in super compared to $432,000 for a couple who were home owners.<\/p>\n
“Every day this isn’t addressed, renters face an impossible financial challenge in retirement \u2026 we’ve got a crisis facing retirees right now,” Super Consumers Australia CEO Xavier O’Halloran said.<\/p>\n
“Renters are at a real risk of retirement disaster if the government doesn’t act.<\/p>\n
“Long-term solutions need to focus on getting more people into affordable housing.”<\/p>\n
Super Consumers Australia, which produced the 2026 Retirement Savings Targets for Renters report, is a not-for-profit organisation that advocates for low-and-middle income Australians in the super system.<\/p>\n
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People in their 60s are not\u00a0always given jobs\u00a0but. instead,\u00a0are\u00a0offered help they don’t want, the ageism\u00a0survey finds. (Unsplash: Huy Phan)<\/p>\n
Financial stress ‘three times more likely’ for renters<\/p>\n
Using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the report looked at the spending needs and habits of retirees in the middle range \u2014 around the 50th percentile mark \u2014 whose lifestyles were comfortable without being extravagant.<\/p>\n
It based its housing information on one-bedroom apartments in capital cities for single people, and a mixture of one and two-bedroom units for couples.<\/p>\n
It compared what home owners might spend on maintaining their properties each week with the rent paid by those with a lease, alongside daily expenses.<\/p>\n
Rate hike could be here within months<\/a><\/p>\n Hotter-than-expected inflation figures have caught many off guard and open the door for an RBA interest rate hike in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n In June 2025, a standard one-bedroom rental in Sydney cost about $560 a week, with about $470 a week paid, on average, in Australia’s other capital cities.<\/p>\n Only 10 per cent of retired home owners were in financial stress, compared to almost half of retired renters, the report’s author Katrina Ellis said.<\/p>\n “It wasn’t a pretty picture and showed that retired renters were more than three times more likely to be in financial stress than home owners,” Ms Ellis, the deputy CEO of Super Consumers Australia, told ABC News.<\/p>\n “The only way for renters to have the same quality of life as home owners was to roughly double their amount of super which, of course, is almost impossible.”<\/p>\n Katrina Ellis. (Supplied: Super Consumers Australia)<\/p>\n The report’s data, from a broad survey of retirees, was based on their actual spending, using a bundle of goods, as well as the cost-of-living index.<\/p>\n Ms Ellis said that while rents had gone up by an average of 4.5 per cent in 2025, Commonwealth Rent Assistance had increased by only 2 per cent.<\/p>\n “It is alarming that it is just not keeping pace with fast-increasing rents, with rent assistance pegged to the wrong thing,” Ms Ellis said.<\/p>\n “Now with about 20 per cent of retirees being renters, they are facing a financial disaster.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n ‘Saving more’ no solution for renters<\/p>\n Mr O’Halloran said the federal government needed to urgently focus on getting more people into affordable housing to avoid giving older renters “an impossible financial challenge in retirement”.<\/p>\n Median rents have increased by almost 50 per cent since 2020, advocacy groups say. (ABC News: John Gunn)<\/p>\n “Telling renters to simply ‘save more’ isn’t the solution to this problem,” he said.<\/p>\n “We’re calling on the Minister for Social Services, Tanya Plibersek, to address Rent Assistance as a matter of urgency. Every day this isn’t addressed, renters face an impossible financial challenge in retirement.”<\/p>\n Cassandra Goldie, CEO of the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), said runaway rents were hurting a broad cross-section of society, not just older Australians.<\/p>\n “Median asking rents have surged about 50 per cent in five years, outpacing wages and leaving renters behind,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/p>\n
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