Less well known is the remarkable level of relative poverty, by global standards, of those retirees. Among the OECD nations, Australia has the third-highest rate of relative income poverty for people aged over 65 at 25.7 per cent, following Korea and Latvia. The OECD metric is based on the proportion of the population with disposable incomes of less than 50 per cent of the median household. By contrast, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the Slovak Republic have the lowest poverty rates, all between 3 per cent and 4 per cent.
The latest Household, Income, Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey out this week also showed that people aged 65 and over face the highest level of income inequality within their age group, compared with other age cohorts. Australian retirees’ nest eggs are small too. The median superannuation balance for men aged 60-64 is $110,000. For women it’s $36,000. That’s a long way short of the $545,000 needed for a comfortable retirement for a single person, according to the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia.
“We fall into the trap of thinking the typical retiree is worried about their $2 million account in their SMSF and is walking down the beach in pastel knitwear with perfect teeth and a labrador,” said Ross Elliott from property consultancy APP. “But it only applies to a very small minority of the population. Most people don’t have the sort of money to buy their way into the typical retirement product.”
But they do have enough to get into a prefab home on a manufactured housing estate. And, so goes the theory, they’ll have enough left over after selling their home to top up their underfunded retirement..
…At Lifestyle Communities, which is focused on Victoria and levies a deferred management fee, site fees are $173 per single and $200 per couple per week per home. The average sales prices for those moving out of their Lifestyle home was $365,962 in the 2018 first half.
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