More Australians are working longer so that they can pay off their homes. As house prices keep rising many people aren't buying a home until they're older meaning when they reach their 60s, they're still in a lot of debt and the latest data shows a growing number of people are delaying their retirement.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Linda Thorison put down roots in Western Australia 20 years ago.
00:07I'm five minutes away from the Dog Beach. It's a very pretty place.
00:13When she jumped on the property ladder she was almost a decade older than the average first home buyer.
00:18Now in her 60s she has $170,000 remaining on her mortgage.
00:24I have decided I won't be retiring next year which is, I'll be 67 and I could.
00:31More people are holding on to employment for longer because of the fact that they've got a significantly higher mortgage liability than they expected to have.
00:40Census data shows over 20 years the number of Australians aged 55 to 64 who own their home outright has almost halved.
00:49Data from a survey of 52,000 people found the number of older Australians with a mortgage who planned to retire but changed their minds doubled in the year to September.
01:00More than 50% expect to sell their property or use their superannuation to repay their mortgage.
01:06There's a knock-on effect of governments then needing to fund pensions for people who, because they've used their super up on the mortgage and are therefore dependent on the pension to survive.
01:17There are many things helping to drive this trend as well as rising house prices and people not being able to afford homes when they're young.
01:24Some parents are taking longer to pay down their mortgages because they're helping their kids buy homes too.
01:31This is a really critical factor because it is having an impact now on those parents and it's changing their own retirement plans.
01:38As she faces a sombre financial future, Linda Thorison is looking on the bright side.
01:44It could be very good for me to just keep working and having my life as it is.