A survey of single women over 40 years of age who do not believe they will own their housing outright at retirement

• Andrea Sharam
• The Salvation Army

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21 October 2011Single, older women in Australia have emerged as a group vulnerable to housing insecurity and as being in danger of homelessness in their old age. Wage inequality and interrupted working lives due to childcare responsibilities are contributing factors and have meant that women, especially single women, have a decreased capacity to acquire housing equity or retirement savings in their own right. In addition, social changes that permit women to choose whether or not they marry and which also enable serial monogamy means there has been significant growth in the number and proportion of single, older women in the population. These social changes mirror the lives of the post-Second World War baby boomers and the cumulative impacts are now being felt as this generation approaches retirement. These women now face further disadvantage in the housing market as purchase prices and rental costs have risen, reflecting a number of factors including a shortage of housing supply.

The Women and Housing Affordability Survey sought to understand whether there is a potential market for a new affordable housing scheme for older, single women in Victoria. The model is based on a land trust model:

• that separates land ownership from dwelling ownership, and assumes the land is provided at no cost;
• where the dwelling is purchased by individual women through private mortgage finance;
• where the women could afford to purchase housing for at least $150,000 and potentially up to $350,000;
• that imposes restrictions on eligibility, sub-letting and bequests;
• that does not permit the capture of capital gains by purchasers.

To understand whether single women were likely to be candidates for such a scheme, each respondent needed to be assessed for their capacity to pay a mortgage of at least $150,000. The income they had available for housing was determined using the budget standard developed by Burke, Stone and Ralston (2011 forthcoming). This provided a maximum housing purchase price, maximum loan amount and a minimum figure for savings to cover the deposit and stamp duty. Information about debt, savings, capacity to save and retirement and superannuation were sought. The housing scheme proposes modifications to key elements of housing ownership as it is commonly understood so the women’s attitude to these key variations was sought. Finally, they were asked if they would be willing to move to access this housing and how far.