Housing Wealth and Retirement Funding – An Update

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With the 2018-19 Federal Budget announcement of an expansion of the little-known Pension Loans Scheme, it is timely to revisit the hurdles to be overcome before housing can play a meaningful role in meeting Australia’s future retirement income challenge.

The Pension Loans Scheme is a loan facility administered by Centrelink and provides eligible senior Australians with the ability to increase age pension payments via a loan secured against their home and repayable upon sale of the home.

The family home as an asset class

Housing wealth is increasingly being recognised as the fourth pillar of our retirement income system (alongside the age pension, compulsory superannuation and voluntary savings), despite being relatively untapped.  For current and soon-to-be retirees, rates of home ownership are high and their home is often their largest asset.  Residential property is the largest asset class in Australia, with an estimated value of over $7 trillion[i].  This compares to ASX listed equities at $1.9 trillion[ii] or, for a different comparison, and perhaps one more relevant to retirement funding, aggregate superannuation assets of around $2.6 trillion[iii]. 

How can housing wealth be released?

The family home is not just a place to live but also a store of wealth.  The wealth can be released by simply selling the home, but this creates the problem of where to live, and there are clear benefits to home ownership in retirement.  

Downsizing is another way to release housing wealth and was the focus of an initiative announced in the 2017 budget.  Downsizing can work well financially for retirees in large/valuable homes, who are happy to move to a different area where housing is cheaper, or who can find suitable housing stock to downsize to in their local area.  Other retirees might investigate downsizing but find that it isn’t a good way forward for them for reasons including lifestyle, community, costs such as stamp duty and sales/marketing/relocation expenses and public policy settings.  Many are simply not interested in downsizing – they wish to see out their retirement in their home.  Downsizing is often triggered by non-financial factors.

There are also products which facilitate the separation of the ‘place to live’ and ‘store of wealth’ attributes of the family home.  Debt home equity release products are known in Australia as “reverse mortgages”.  Alternatively, there are mechanisms which facilitate a senior homeowner selling a share of the future sale proceeds of the home whilst continuing to live in it, sometimes known as “home reversions”.

How do retirees use housing wealth?

Increasingly, senior Australians release housing wealth to extinguish housing and other debt outstanding at retirement.  For some, the alternative would be having to sell the home.  Housing wealth might also be used to buy a new car or white goods, to finance home modifications, to pay medical expenses or to fund in-home care.  Wealth might be accessed to help family members enter the housing market.  Some seniors seek to access funds to enjoy travel or simply to live a more comfortable retirement than would otherwise be possible.

Hurdles to overcome

Given the size of the “fourth pillar” and the number of “asset rich, cash poor” senior Australians with few assets other than the family home, it is interesting to consider why the release of housing wealth during retirement is not more prevalent.  The possible explanations are wide-ranging.

Public policy settings encourage retirees to store wealth in the family home as it is an asset which is free from capital gains tax and exempt from age pension means testing.  This creates a financial incentive not to release housing wealth. 

There is no overarching federal legislation applying to providers of home equity release products.  Reverse mortgages are heavily regulated but not home equity release arrangements in general.  Sensible principles-based legislation could provide comfort to retirees that products/schemes are regulated and must provide, for example, security of tenure.  It would also be advantageous to potential providers to have a clear regulatory framework.  

A significant hurdle to increasing the market for home equity release products is a lack of capital.  There are only a handful of products available in Australia, and those on offer have strict eligibility criteria.  

According to Infochoice[iv], reverse mortgages are currently offered by:

• Bank SA (part of Westpac);
• Bankwest (part of CBA) and CBA;
• Heartland Seniors Finance;
• MyLife MyFinance (previously Transcomm Credit Union, now owned by an industry super fund) and
• P&N Bank (a Western Australian member-owned bank).

Homesafe Wealth Release is the sole established home reversion provider.

SEQUAL, the association established in 2004 for providers of home equity release products, closed its operations in January 2017.   Two home equity release product providers withdrew from the market in 2017 – Macquarie Bank and Westpac-owned St George Bank both ceased offering their reverse mortgage products. 

Finally, releasing home equity to fund retirement is not currently “mainstream” in Australia.  Aside from the issues already outlined, financial advice may not consider the family home: total asset planning is needed.  Many people, understandably, have an emotional attachment to their home, and this makes it difficult to view the home as a financial asset.  Downsizing or utilising a home equity release product may be rational courses of action but they are often needed at a time of life when people feel vulnerable and apprehensive about making difficult decisions.  

Budget 2018-19: expansion of the Pension Loans Scheme

The Pension Loans Scheme is akin to a reverse mortgage scheme offered by the government.  It currently allows some senior Australians to borrow against their home to top-up their part pension or, if not eligible for the pension due to either the income or assets test (but not both), to provide an income stream up to an amount equal to the full pension.  The take-up rate has been low historically, attributable to the restrictive eligibility criteria and low awareness of the scheme.

The 2018-19 Federal Budget included an initiative to expand the Pension Loans Scheme from 1 July 2019 to include all Australians of Age Pension Age who own homes.  Either owner-occupied or investment property can be used as security for the loan.  Age-based loan to valuation ratio limits will continue to apply.  

The maximum allowable combined Age Pension and Pension Loans Scheme income stream would be 150 per cent of the Age Pension rate.  The Pension Loans Scheme income would be paid fortnightly in conjunction with pension payments (if applicable) with flexibility to start or stop receiving these payments as circumstances change.  There would remain no option to borrow a lump sum.

Concluding remarks

In terms of recognising housing wealth as the fourth pillar of our retirement income system, this expansion of the Pension Loans Scheme is significant.  It is a partial solution to the problem of a lack of capital as the government is effectively stepping in as a loan provider, facilitating an income stream with the borrowing secured against the property.  The Pension Loans Scheme will be available to all home-owning senior Australians, including those who do not meet the eligibility criteria for other home equity release mechanisms currently available. 

Most importantly, awareness of this scheme will increase and it is a step towards the use of housing wealth to supplement retirement funding becoming “mainstream.”
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[i] Corelogic’s Housing Market Update, April 2018, reported a $7.5 trillion value of Australian residential real estate.
[ii] https://www.asx.com.au/about/historical-market-statistics.htm#End_of_month_values
[iii] https://www.superannuation.asn.au/resources/superannuation-statistics
[iv] www.infochoice.com.au

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