There has been plenty of discussion in the lead up to the budget about housing, especially when it comes to affordability.
And it looks like there will be some measures in this year’s budget which could affect you as an older Australian – whether you’re a home owner, renter or resident of a retirement village or aged care facility.
Tonight, we’ll know exactly what the government plans to do in the budget.
But for now, here is a little bit of what to expect in the budget for housing situation.
As you would have read here on Starts at 60, the government is looking at removing some of the disincentives that are stopping older Australians from downsizing their homes. The theory is that by making it easier for older Australians to downsize their homes, more homes will go on the market and some of the heat will be taken out of the property market. The budget is expected to have several measures that will make it easier for you to downsize your home, including:
There is also talk about cutting stamp duty, although stamp duty is regulated by the state governments. The Federal Government did in fact cost the option of cutting stamp duty, although there is no indication of whether or not that will be included in the budget. According to the Property Council of Australia and Deloitte Access Economics, if a cut to stamp duty was included in the budget, an extra 34,000 retirees would sell their properties each year.
There has been a lot of talk about aged care funding in the lead up to the budget. Minister for Aged Care Ken Wyatt has been holding numerous discussions with the industry about funding aged care into the future, and a report on the issue of funding has presented several options for the future. While last year’s budget had some big changes for aged care funding, there hasn’t been any indications of big change in this year’s budget. You can guarantee though that the cost of aged care to the government will go up with the ageing population. Submissions in the lead up to the budget from National Seniors Australia have called for the government to maintain its guarantee for aged care bonds. Aged and Community Services Australia has called for the government to commit to the forward estimates of aged care funding spending, which is estimated at $17 billion for 2017/18 and $18.4 billion for 2018/19.
With the release of several reports about renting affordability in recent months, there’s pressure on the government to do more to make renting more affordable. Older Australians are among the worst hit by the high cost of renting a home, with many spending the more than 30% of their income figure to be considered as suffering “housing stress”. While there has been calls for the government to increase rent assistance for pensioners, there’s been no indications of any change ahead of the budget. However, what we do know is the government is considering measures to allow more investment in community housing. The government is reportedly looking at developing a “bond aggregator” model, which would allow community housing organisations to borrow money from the government to buy community housing. If implemented, the measure could bring about more affordable rental properties for seniors, depending on what organisations take up the measure.
If you’re living in a retirement village, chances are there probably won’t be too much in the budget that will affect your housing situation. However, ahead of the budget there were many submissions calling for changes to retirement village laws. National Seniors Australia has called for the government to put money in the budget towards developing a national set of laws for retirement villages, to replace the state by state laws the industry is currently governed by. National Seniors also called for the establishment of a retirement housing commissioner, like there is in New Zealand and Western Australia, who could deal with dispute resolution and compliance for retirement villages. While there is no indication the government will address this in the budget, there’s always the possibility.