Photo: 123RF
A doubling of the number of retirees who will be forced to rent over the next 25 years means New Zealand has to urgently rethink how it supports older people's housing needs, the Retirement Commission says.
The commission has just completed a survey of older people's housing status.
The survey found a third of Kiwis aged 55-64 do not own their own homes and 20 percent aged over 65 are in the same situation.
The commission's director of policy and research, Dr Suzy Morrissey, told Nine to Noon that figure was expected to jump to 40 percent, or 600,000 people, by 2048.
She said that was "a staggering projection" that would change New Zealand's housing landscape and it needed to be addressed urgently.
Listen to the full interview:
Soaring numbers of older renters also meant far more smaller-sized and accessible homes, for example with wider doorways and without steps, would be needed in future.
That could require some kind of incentive for developers, who tended to focus on building bigger homes because those were more profitable.
Because pensions were set at a level that assumed retirees owned their homes outright and did not have rent or a mortgage to pay, the country would also need to consider how it supported older people with their housing costs, Dr Morrissey said.
That was especially true in urban centres where rents were highest and home ownership rates were lowest.
"We know that home ownership is a key contributor to well-being in retirement, and if we know we're going to have fewer and fewer people in that position, it does mean we're going to need to start thinking about what we're doing for them," she said.
