This research responds to a research question in the Housing and Ageing research area of the 2007 AHURI Research Agenda which asks the following questions: ‘What are the types, sizes and locations of dwellings occupied by older home owners? How do these patterns vary for different household sizes? What incentives or disincentives could encourage or discourage the efficient use of dwellings and land occupied by older home owners?’ With the co-funding of the Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) the scope of the project  was expanded to include a number of issues identified in the recommendations of the National Speaker Series report entitled A Community for All Ages particularly in regard to neighbourhood design, cost-benefit analysis of housing design approaches to improve housing suitability for older Australians, consumer acceptance of these approaches, and economic modelling of the consequences of these not being adopted.

The context for this study is the phenomenon of the ageing of the Australian population and its social and economic implications for the housing needs of older people, and in particular the efficiency of their use of the housing stock and the suitability of housing land and neighbourhood design for the needs of an ageing society. Ageing in place is accepted as being both in the interests of older people’s independence, health and wellbeing as well as reducing the economic burden on government of the ageing society through the provision of institutionalised aged care. As a consequence, there has been a growing body of supporting policy, research and program development over the last 25 years.

Authors: Bruce Judd, Diana Olsberg, Joanne Quinn, Lucy Groenhart and Oya Demirbilek

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