The Implications of Loss of a Partner for Older Private Renters

Abstract

This study of the implications of loss of a partner for older private renters is being conducted collaboratively across several AHURI Research Centres, led by the AHURI RMIT–NATSEM Research Centre. The study focuses on how older Australians’ (defined as 50+years) housing outcomes are influenced by the loss of a partner through death, divorce or separation. The main focus of the study is the impact on renters rather than owners as the housing circumstances of renters is considered more susceptible to financial stress and uncertainty. However, there are homeowners who lose homeownership status following loss of a partner, and the absence of housing assistance programmes targeted on existing homeowners means that divorcees in this tenure can be vulnerable to housing affordability stress. An important theme of this study is then the important role of losing a partner in determining the housing careers of both older owners and renters. Finally, it should be stressed that most divorces and separations occur well before the partners in a marriage turn 50 years of age. A focus on older Australians ignores the housing career adjustments that divorcees and separated persons make in the initial years following household dissolution.