General Media Clips

Funding Your Retirement

How Much Do You Need To Spend To Be Comfortable In Retirement?

Recent research (first released February 2004) commissioned by Westpac from ASFA (the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia) provides a clear and objective indication of how much money needs to be spent each year to fund a comfortable lifestyle in retirement. The resulting "Westpac/ASFA Retirement Living Standard" provides detailed budgets of what singles and couples would need to spend to be able to have either:

• A modest lifestyle in retirement, better than just survival on just the Age Pension but still only being able to afford fairly basic activities; or
• A more comfortable lifestyle in retirement, enabling an older retiree to be involved in leisure and recreational activities and to have a good standard of living (ie able to purchase household goods, private health insurance, a reasonable car, good clothes, a range of electronic equipment, and domestic and occasional international holiday travel).

The table below sets out total budgets for retired single persons and couples for both the Modest and Comfortable retirement living standards for Sydney in June 2006 on both a weekly and yearly basis. The breakdowns are on a weekly basis. For some budget items, two can live as cheaply as one, but for other items costs go up with the size of the household. To have a comfortable lifestyle, retired single need to spend $35,430 a year and couples $47,507 a year. This assumes the retiree owns their home.

Budgets For Singles & Couples

Additionally ABS statistics show the Australian population is expected to grow by 10% from 2004 to 2014, but this growth will not be spread evenly with the 60 to 65 year olds increasing their numbers by between 50% and 55%, meaning a burgeoning 70 to 75 year old age group by 2014.
ASFA - The Voice of Super

Queensland

Matusik Property Insights August 2006 Snapshot

According to the ABS, 31% of Australian households were in rental accommodation in 1997/1998. In the late 80s, this figure was about 23% of households. In southeast Queensland alone land prices have risen 2957% since 1973 on average (in many places much higher) with established homes rising 2231%
Australian Property Investor Aug 2006

Planning

Queensland will lock up development of the nation's fastest growing region encompassing the Gold and Sunshine Coasts and push west most of the one million migrants it expects over the next two decades.

The Queensland Government has banned development over 80 per cent of the state's booming southeast corner to prevent what Premier Peter Beattie yesterday described as a "Sydney or Los Angeles urban sprawl" engulfing the region. Mr Beatie said he was determined to accommodate the needs of the 1million extra residents expected to be living in southeast Queensland by 2026 without destroying the lifestyle values that attract people to the region.

In the new ‘greenfield' subdivisions there will be 15 lots per hectare, up from an average of 9.5 lots in present urban subdivisions. The plan envisages more cross-river walking and cycling bridges for Brisbane and an extension of the Brisbane-Gold Coast rail service to Coolangatta.
The Australian 2006

Household Wealth Built On Bricks, Mortar & Super

The average Australian household is worth almost $500,000 thanks to bricks and mortar and the growing importance of their superannuation nest eggs. But new figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show a small proportion of the population controls a huge amount of wealth while the young, renters and single parent families struggle. More than 17 per cent of Australian households have a net worth of $50,009 or less. Indeed, one percent of households have a negative net worth. Around 50 per cent of households have a net worth of $300,000 or less. But less than 10 pr cent of the population has a net worth of $1 million or more, including around 16,000 households with a net worth of greater than $7 million.
Realestate.com.au, 26th May 2006.

Investment Property Still Favoured Investment

Investment property is still a high priority amongst Australians with an Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia survey showing almost half of Australia's either own an investment property or are considering buying one in the next ten years. From more than 1,100 respondents, the survey found:

• Australians that already own an investment property 20%
• Australians likely to consider buying an investment property in next 10 years 20%

Wealth Creator Magazine - Sept/Oct 2006

Best Places To Buy Investment Property

In the February 2007 issue of Australian Property Investor, Michael Matusik of Matusik Property Insights advised:

"I believe when it comes to residential investment property, you must hold for the long term (over ten years). Another key factor is capital gain, which contributes over the long term to around 70 per cent of a residential property's total return. The other 30 per cent comes from net rent. What drives capital growth is infrastructure and being in a logical location in relation to work and how a city/region is evolving."

"The Ipswich corridor west of Brisbane offers, in my mind, great potential for capital gain and rental returns." The area is growing, infrastructure is actually being delivered across Brisbane's west such as the Orion shopping centre, improvements to the Centenary Highway and in due course a new railway line to Springfield."

"Finally more families, and especially at the lower end of the market, will be forced to rent and many will live west of Brisbane City."

In the same article, Michael McNamara from Australian Property Monitors advised:

"If I was going to buy for long-term capital growth, then in Queensland, I don't think you can go past the growth corridors - between Brisbane and the Gold Coast and between Brisbane and Ipswich."
Australian Property Investor Feb 2007

In the February 2007 issue of Money, an article by Terry Ryder about the growing split between those seeking affordable buys and those with money to burn had this to say about hot spots in Queensland:

"Affordable areas with strong economic drivers will be targeted by first-home buyers and bargain-hunting investors in 2007. The Beenleigh precinct, halfway between Brisbane city and the Gold Coast, stands to benefit from strong road links, rail line upgrades, big retail development and expansion of industrial estates."

"The Ipswich corridor, attracting massive infrastructure spending and private development money, is shaking off its poor-cousin image to become the growth hot spot of South East Queensland."... "The Capricorn Coast is an undervalued area boosted by government spending on infrastructure and its proximity to Rockhampton."
Money Feb 2007