The significant retirement cost awaiting more Australian homeowners
Experts say it’s the reason additional superannuation payments are so important
2 min
An increasing number of Australians expect to still be paying off a mortgage or renting in retirement, a new survey by superannuation provider Vanguard shows. The findings mirror trends revealed by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare last year. The AIHW says homeownership rates are gradually decreasing among people nearing retirement. Since 1996, homeownership among 50 to 54-year-olds has fallen from 80 percent to 72 percent in 2021, according to Census data. The number of people aged 55 or older who are renting also rose from 17.5 percent in 1996 to 20.6 percent in 2021.
Vanguard’s How Australia Retires report shows nearly one in three working Australians today expect they will still be paying off their home loans in retirement. The expectation is higher among younger generations, with 45 percent of Gen Zs (aged 18 to 27 years) expecting to be doing so compared to 29 percent of millennials (aged 28 to 42), 32 percent of Gen Xers (aged 43 to 57) and 17 percent of baby boomers (aged 58 to 77).
Vanguard says almost one in five retirees today are renting and 8 percent are still paying off a home loan. The likelihood of retiring with a mortgage or renting is significantly higher for those who are not in a relationship compared to those with a partner, at 31 percent and 8 percent, respectively.
Achieving debt-free home ownership is especially important given so many Australians intend to remain in their homes as long as possible. The survey found 56 percent of retired Australians and 46 percent of workers want to remain in their family home for life and/or want to pass it on to relatives in their Wills. This suggests holding onto the family home in retirement is a priority, even if that means continuing to pay interest on debt.
Daniel Shrimski, Managing Director of Vanguard Australia, said housing tenure was a “sleeper issue”in retirement.
“Housing is either the largest or second largest asset held by Australian households, so it’s also one of the most important contributors to a secure retirement,” he said. “We tend to presume we’ll be homeowners and mortgage free – but having unresolved debt or needing to draw down on savings to pay rent is likely to be a big financial burden for many, especially if full-time paid work is no longer an option.”
Mr Shrimski said this is why it’s so important for Australians to prioritise superannuation savings, yet 49 percent of workers have not made additional contributions to their superannuation and 27 percent have no intention of doing so, despite the generous tax concessions available. The report also found less than one–third of workers felt confident in their understanding of superannuation.
Many Australians intend to use at least part of their super to pay off mortgage debt. The survey asked Gen Xers – the next generation to retire – about their plans to pay off their mortgage. About 38percent said they intend to keep paying their mortgage through retirement, while 25 percent intend to use their super to pay it off in one hit.
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All three vehicles will form part of a broader charitable initiative benefiting Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the American Red Cross and Starlight Children’s Foundation
Jack Freeman believes the most compelling interiors are not decorated, but collected. The FREEMAN & CO founder creates layered, personal spaces shaped by art, travel and craftsmanship.
4 min
For Jack Freeman, a compelling interior should not look as though it was completed in a single shopping trip.
The founder and designer behind FREEMAN & CO prefers rooms that develop through art, travel, commissioned furniture and objects collected over time. It is an approach that treats the home less as a decorative project and more as an evolving portrait of its owner.
“I am a true believer in collecting versus decorating,” Freeman says.
That distinction underpins the international practice he has built across private residences, hotels, property developments, yachts and private aviation. Its projects stretch from Point Piper, Vaucluse, Circular Quay and Toorak to Mayfair, Bel Air and the Caribbean.
Although the locations and architecture vary considerably, the work is connected by a restrained design language. Natural stone, warm timbers and sculptural furniture establish the foundation, while art, bespoke lighting and individual objects give each interior its identity.
The objective is not to overwhelm a room with obvious symbols of expense. It is to create an environment that feels calm, layered and particular to the people living within it.
“The greatest luxury isn’t about excess,” Freeman says. “It’s about creating an oasis where you come home and feel immediately grounded — effortlessly chic and deeply personal.”
Collecting instead of decorating
Decorating can imply the completion of a room: selecting the required furniture, filling the available walls and producing a coherent finished image.
Collecting is less conclusive.
A collected interior has room to change as its owners travel, discover artists, inherit pieces or reassess how they use their home. Its character comes from the relationship between objects rather than adherence to a single brand or season.
That does not mean placing unrelated pieces together without discipline. The designer must understand scale, proportion, material and provenance well enough to create a dialogue between them.
A contemporary artwork might sit beside a historic piece of furniture. A precisely detailed new interior may be interrupted by an irregular object made by hand. Smooth stone can be balanced by timber, textiles or a patinated metal surface that becomes richer with age.
The tension between those elements is part of the appeal.
For Freeman, art is not an accessory to be added once the furniture plan is complete. It forms part of the architecture and atmosphere of the room from the beginning.
Lighting is considered in the same way. Beyond its practical purpose, a bespoke fitting can operate as a suspended sculpture, changing both the room’s composition and the way its materials are experienced after dark.
A design perspective shaped by travel
International travel plays a significant role in Freeman’s creative process.
Design fairs such as PAD Paris and Salone del Mobile in Milan provide opportunities to encounter emerging designers, established galleries, new materials and collectible furniture away from the filter of social media.
More spontaneous discoveries can prove equally important.
“Sometimes it’s the simple things,” Freeman says. “That piece found on a shopping trip with a client in Paris, stumbling across an artisan’s workshop, or a special memory that forms the narrative of the story.”
Objects selected during travel bring more than visual interest into a home. They carry an association with a place, maker or experience, giving the client a connection that cannot be reproduced by ordering an entire interior from a catalogue.
Freeman’s influences are international, but his projects are not conceived as replicas of Parisian, Milanese or Californian style. Each commission responds to its architecture, setting, natural light and the daily lives of its occupants.
A waterfront Sydney residence demands a different treatment from a Mayfair townhouse. A Caribbean estate shaped by brutalist architecture and reflecting pools calls for another response again.
The designer’s role is to absorb those references without allowing them to overwhelm the individual qualities of the property.
Designing the complete experience
FREEMAN & CO extends beyond conventional interior decoration.
The practice’s stated services include interior design and architecture, project management, property acquisition, development advice, concept design, documentation, furniture and lighting design, procurement and art curation.
That breadth allows the team to become involved before a room’s dimensions and finishes are fixed.
Early participation can be important at the top end of the residential market, where architecture, landscape, interiors, technology and art must operate as one environment. Decisions about ceiling heights, wall dimensions, sightlines and lighting can directly affect where art is installed or how custom furniture is proportioned.
The practice can then carry those decisions through to procurement and final installation, maintaining the design narrative as a project moves between architects, builders, specialist craftspeople, dealers and suppliers.
Its residential portfolio includes a South Coast retreat conceived as an escape from urban life, a Caribbean estate with reflecting pools, an East Coast-inspired Palm Beach residence and a Mayfair townhouse organised around an expressive drawing room.
The studio also says it has worked on highly tailored Sydney residences with values exceeding $100 million, although the private nature of such commissions means individual addresses and clients are not always disclosed.
A home that can keep changing
The risk in creating a perfectly resolved interior is that it can become too static — a composition that looks exceptional in photographs but leaves little room for life.
Freeman sees the home as something that should evolve with its owners.
“I love the evolution of design,” he says. “We are talking about people’s lives, and as they evolve, so too should their private sanctuaries.”
That evolution might involve adding art, reupholstering a significant piece, adapting rooms as a family changes or making space for objects gathered through future travels.
The original design needs to be strong enough to accommodate those layers.
This may be the clearest expression of Freeman’s approach to luxury. It is not simply access to rare stone, collectible furniture or commissioned craftsmanship. It is the creation of a personal environment whose meaning deepens rather than diminishes with time.
Fact box
- Designer: Jack Freeman
- Role: Founder and managing director
- Practice: FREEMAN & CO
- Base: Australia, with international projects
- Project locations named by the practice: Point Piper, Vaucluse, Circular Quay, Toorak, Palm Beach, the NSW South Coast, Mayfair, Bel Air and the Caribbean
- Sectors: Private residences, hotels, residential developments, private aviation and superyachts
- Services: Interior design and architecture, property development, project management, property acquisition, documentation, furniture and lighting design, FF&E procurement, interior dressing and art curation
- Design philosophy: Collected, personal interiors shaped by art, craftsmanship, travel and enduring materials
- Website: free-man.co
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