Australia’s ageing population is colliding with a housing system under strain. More older Australians are facing multiple, often overlapping forms of housing precarity, including homes that cost too much or fall short on basic standards – or both.

New research, launched today at Parliament House and commissioned by Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG), shows that such forms of housing precarity are affecting the health, wellbeing and financial hardship of mid-life and older Australians. They are also harming private renters and women the most.

Housing has long been central to ageing well. Secure housing provides not only shelter, but stability, safety, autonomy and a place of care.

For decades, policy assumed most Australians would retire as outright homeowners, benefiting from tenure security and low housing costs. This assumption underpinned modest age pensions, based on the expectation that recipients were not paying rent or mortgages.

That model is weakening. More people are approaching later life with mortgage debt or in private rental – tenures that offer........

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