Your pension could be paying your rent in your later years.
As homeownership rates continue to drop, one study has found that one in two young people will still be renting by the time they reach retirement age.
The statistic was published in the “Future trends in housing tenure and the adequacy of retirement income” report published by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) on Wednesday (6 July).
Between 2004 and 2019, the rate of homeownership in people aged 25-34 dropped dramatically from 60 percent to just 27 percent.
A number of scenarios were simulated as part of the research to estimate how many of that cohort would own a home by retirement age.
Around one in two young people were estimated to own a house by the time they stopped working, with the number increasing to 60% if house prices and income growth were uniform.
Homeownership in current retirees (aged 65 and over) is around 90%, with the numbers dropping with each cohort.
Homeownership rates in 35-44 year olds is around 58 percent, with this number possibly rising to 71 percent with supports.
The ESRI, however, is predicting that one in three people in this age bracket won’t own a home by the time they retire.
“Homeownership in retirement currently provides a double dividend – lower housing costs and higher assets in retirement,” said Dr Rachel Slaymaker, lead author of the report.
“Our findings suggest that homeownership rates will be substantially lower for future cohorts, particularly those currently aged 45 and under. Without intervention this will lead to significantly higher rates of income poverty in retirement for these cohorts.”
Without intervention, older people could be at risk of going into poverty in the future, and also put a major financial strain on the Exchequer.
“Increased supply and other housing policy interventions can impact the share of homeowners, while increased direct provision of social housing or policies that develop alternative, non-market renting options such as cost rental can all help to lower the cost of housing in retirement, and thereby reduce the share of retirees in income poverty,” said the ESRI.
