Famine Of Housing For Over 65’s Predicted During Next Decade

Australia will face a famine of suitable housing for people aged over 65 during the next decade because of an explosion in the number of older Australians and the continued focus of the housing sector to cater for younger families with children according to Kevin Young President of Property Club.

Mr Young said that the latest Government population projections reveal that for the first time in Australia’s history there will be more people aged over 65 than children aged 0 to 14 years by 2030.

“This is part of a world - wide trend. In Japan, Italy, Greece, Sweden, Canada and Hong Kong (Special administrative region (SAR) of China), the number of people aged 65 years and over already exceeds the number of children aged 0–14 years.

“Despite this, the new home construction sector continues to focused on building larger family homes in the outer suburbs rather than focusing on the special housing needs people over 65.

“This trend is underlined by the fact that Australia has homes with too many bedrooms with ABS figures showing 78% of all households having one or more bedrooms more than the household requires.

“Property Club is already responding to major social trend by encouraging our members to purchase well located apartments rather than house and land packages.

“The reality is that the renters of tomorrow are more likely to be people aged over 65 rather than families with children.

“As a result, Property Club focuses on larger style apartments that have at least three metre wide balconies as older people require more living space as they spend a lot of time at home.

“Running a car is expensive for them so we recommend apartment developments that are a short walk to amenities such as transport hubs and shopping that suit an ageing population.

“Air conditioning is expensive and the design of the apartment should allow for cross flow of natural air.

“Property Club predicts that level of suitable housing for over 65 year old’s will not meet demand over the coming decade because all levels of government collect substantial levels of tax through housing developments in the outer suburbs – more than 40% the cost building a new house is comprised of Government taxes. At the same time Australia is still not building enough homes to cater for our growing population. For example, from 2010 to 2015 Australia’s the number of new homes in Australia grew by 8% to over 750,000 people while our population surged by 10% or 2,163,000 people,” he said.