A new AHURI report released today investigates the growing numbers of older Australians who are carrying high levels of mortgage debt into retirement, and considers the consequences for their wellbeing and for the retirement incomes system. The research, ‘Mortgage stress and precarious home ownership: implications for older Australians’, found that between 1987 and 2015, average real mortgage debt among older Australians increased by 600 per cent, while their average mortgage debt to income ratios tripled from 71 per cent in 1987 to 211 per cent in 2015. Furthermore, when older mortgagors experience difficulty in meeting mortgage payments, wellbeing declines and stress levels increase.
