Website link to the research paper and survey supplements. In the course of the Housing Decisions of Older Australians study, the Commission identified a paucity of recent data on the behavioural drivers of specific decisions relevant to the study. There were some existing surveys on the attitudes of older Australians on releasing equity from the home and reverse mortgage products. However, these tended to be either outdated (having occurred prior to significant changes in the market and in the policy and regulatory environment) or based on very small sample sizes.
More broadly, previous surveys often tended to focus on a particular aspect of housing decisions (either the accommodation dimension, or the investment and financial dimension), rather than providing a comprehensive review.
The Commission engaged RFI Group to conduct a national survey of older Australians on issues pertinent to this study and that address the gap in evidence. The survey sought the views of older Australians on issues such as: planning for retirement; housing preferences and downsizing; savings, debt and bequests; and home equity release products.
Results from this survey have been used throughout this report, and full results are available online.