‘Retirement disaster’: Single renter needs $659,000 in super compared with $322,000 for homeowner
Millions of Australians are facing a “retirement disaster” as new figures reveal the eye-watering amount they will need to have in superannuation.
A typical single renter would need $659,000 in super in order to have a comfortable retirement, compared to $322,00 for a retiree who owns their own home, according to grim new projections warning of a “retirement disaster” facing millions.
The 2026 Retirement Savings Targets for Renters, published this week by Super Consumers Australia, similarly found a couple who rents needs $786,000 combined in super compared to $432,000 combined in super for a couple who owns their home.
“Telling renters to simply ‘save more’ isn’t the solution to this problem” Super Consumers Australia chief executive Xavier O’Halloran said in a statement.
“The 2026 Retirement Savings Targets for Renters has found that renters are at a real risk of retirement disaster if the government doesn’t act.”
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Mr O’Halloran said while long-term solutions needed to focus on getting more people into affordable housing, “we’ve got a crisis facing retirees right now, Commonwealth Rent Assistance has not kept pace with actual rents”.
“We’re calling on the Minister for Social Services Tanya Plibersek to address Rent Assistance as a matter of urgency,” he said. “Every day this isn’t addressed, renters face an impossible financial challenge in retirement.”
Around 2.9 million households, or 31 per cent, were renting as of the 2021 Census.
The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, published in September, revealed that the share of retirees who rent has doubled from 6 per cent in 2003 to 12 per cent in 2023.
That figure is projected to rise to roughly one quarter of retirees within two decades, meaning many of today’s renters in their 30s and 40s “are going to be your future retirees in the rental market”, warned Melbourne University researcher and HILDA report co-author Dr Kyle Peyton.
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Data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) show there were more than 325,000 Age Pensioners receiving Commonwealth Rent Assistance in June 2025, and 32 per cent (105,000) were still in rental stress — defined as spending more than 33 per cent of their income on rent.
Commonwealth Rent Assistance is updated on March 20 and September 20 each year in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
For renters on income support payments such as the Age Pension, the maximum fortnightly rate is currently $215.40 for singles and $203 for couples.
“Commonwealth Rent Assistance does not come close to covering the rental costs for people living in capital cities,” Super Consumers Australia said.
“For a single person, rent assistance is $5,600.40 per year, but we know that rent is typically $19,700 or more per year. It isn’t keeping up. Commonwealth Rent Assistance increased by only 2 per cent from September 2024 to September 2025, while rents rose 4.5 per cent in the same period.”
The analysis swapped out what homeowners spend on their house, such as maintenance, with rental costs for renters, and assumed single people rent one-bedroom apartments, and couples rent either a one-bedroom or two-bedroom apartments in capital cities.
“The typical one-bedroom rent across all capital cities averaged $470 per week in June 2025, with Sydney being the highest at $560 a week,” the report said.
“In general Sydney and Canberra have higher rents than the average. The high cost of rent actually means people who rent in retirement need to spend 30-47 per cent more than homeowners to have the same standard of living. Across Australia, renters need one and a half to three times as much super as homeowners to enjoy the same standard of living.”
Mr O’Halloran said there needed to be “systemic change”, calling for the government link Commonwealth Rent Assistance to rent CPI, while investing in more housing designed for older Australians.
“Living in expensive and poor-quality homes is impacting the health and wellbeing of older renters, and preventing their ability to age well and with dignity,” the report said.
“We need to address this retirement divide, by building more public and community housing, reforming housing-related tax concessions, cap rent increases to no more than CPI, and raising the rate of income support payments.”
The Department of Social Services (DSS) said in a statement that the government “recognises that access to secure and affordable housing has social, economic, and personal benefits for all Australians”.
“The maximum rates of Commonwealth Rent Assistance have increased by almost 50 per cent since March 2022 thanks to real increases from government and regular indexation,” a spokesperson said.
The 2024-25 federal budget included an additional $1.9 billion for Commonwealth Rent Assistance.
It comes after new research showed rental affordability in some capital cities has shown signs of stabilising in 2025 after years of steep decline.
But this was less to do with relief and “more to do with renters reaching their limit and being unable to pay more”, said Ellen Witte, executive director of SGS Economics & Planning.
The 11th annual National Shelter-SGS Economics and Planning Rental Affordability Index, which compares rents with incomes, found last month that while Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide had stabilised, regional areas had become less affordable.
Regional NSW, formerly a rental affordability “escape valve”, is now officially less affordable than Sydney with the average household spending more than 30 per cent of its income on rent, the report found.
“Long stretches from Tweed Heads to Port Macquarie are now severely unaffordable,” Ms Witte said.
“Byron Bay, for example, remains one of the least affordable locations in the entire country. It is stark and sobering when regional NSW offers less rental affordability than a global financial centre like Sydney.”
Affordability also worsened in Brisbane and Perth, which remains the country’s most unaffordable capital, while regional WA suffered the sharpest annual decline of any region.
The median rent in Perth now takes up 32 per cent of an average household’s income, up from 21 per cent in 2020, and now above Sydney on 30 per cent.
“For a full-time hospitality worker, the outlook is particularly dire,” the report said. “Rents are out of reach in most capitals and rest-of-state areas.”
Originally published as ‘Retirement disaster’: Single renter needs $659,000 in super compared with $322,000 for homeowner
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