Originally published: Coast Community News, 8 May 2026
Central Coast renters aged 55-69 are facing a bleak future, according to a recent survey conducted by not-for-profit housing provider Home in Place.
The survey revealed a growing group of Australians entering retirement with high housing costs, limited savings and little protection, with almost 12,000 people on the Central Coast in the demographic.
There are 11,595 people in the Central Coast local government area aged between 55 and 69 who are renting and may be facing housing instability and stress
The findings highlight how exposed people are when they reach retirement age without owning a home in a system that assumes they will.
Home in Place Group Executive Manager, Marketing & Public Affairs, Martin Kennedy, said there was a huge hole in Australia’s retirement system.
“Our system assumes people will have low housing costs in later life because they will have paid off a mortgage,” he said.
“But there are at least 750,000 Australians who will hit retirement age in the next decade who are not homeowners; that is a recipe for disaster.”
Of the 772 renters surveyed: almost one in five (18%) renters in their 50s and 60s do not believe they will ever retire; 27% expect major financial stress in retirement; just 8% of respondents expect a comfortable retirement; a third (34%) say their superannuation would last less than five years if they had to rely on it while renting; four in 10 (42%) say they definitely could not afford to rent privately on the Age Pension; and six in 10 currently spend more than 30% of their income on rent, which puts them in the housing stress category – a third spend more than 40%.
The national survey of 772 renters aged 55-69 was conducted from March 10-25 by Pureprofile.
