Rising mortgage debt is giving a productivity boost to the Australian workforce as it is keeping older workers out of retirement, a new report from housing research body Ahuri says.
Older people were more likely to be working for every $100,000 of additional mortgage debt they had, Curtin University professor Rachel Ong told Ahuri’s housing affordability conference in Melbourne on Thursday.
It was not clear whether people were delaying retirement because they had a higher debt to pay off or because they expected to live and work longer and were comfortable taking on ever-higher levels of debt.
Either way, it meant less of a loss to the economy of skilled workers as the Baby Boomer generation retires, said Professor Ong, deputy …
Read the full article at: http://www.afr.com/real-estate/the-upside-of-record-mortgage-debt-were-all-working-longer-20170629-gx10t8
