More than 1,000 Australians surveyed have backed the idea of tapping their superannuation to ease housing costs, with support strongest among younger cohorts.
The nationally representative survey, conducted by comparison and research platform OurTop10, tested four superannuation-for-housing proposals linked to the Liberal Party and One Nation. All four attracted majority support.
The strongest backing (72%) was for allowing homeowners to direct part of their super into a mortgage offset account, a policy floated by the Liberal Party. One Nation's proposal to let Australians redirect up to 3% of compulsory super contributions towards mortgage or rent payments for up to three years drew 68% support, with the Super Members Council separately modelling that a median full-time worker taking up that arrangement would be around $25,000 worse off at retirement, while using super as loan collateral (66%) and withdrawing up to $50,000 for a home deposit (63%) also cleared majority thresholds.
Support skewed heavily toward younger generations across all four proposals. Gen Z respondents were the strongest backers of the compulsory-contribution proposal, at 82%, ahead of Millennials (75%) and Gen X (65%), while Baby Boomers were the least supportive generation, though still a majority in favour. Millennials recorded the highest support for each of the Liberal-linked proposals, including 79% backing for the mortgage offset option – relevant context for brokers working with first-home buyers and younger property investors navigating deposit hurdles.
Neither party has confirmed these as formal policy, and the Liberal Party has not yet announced specific superannuation policies for the next federal election.
OurTop10 head of research Mansour Soltani (pictured) said the results reflect frustration with the status quo.
"The prime minister may describe Australia's superannuation pool as a national asset, but Australians clearly still see it as their money and want greater freedom to use it when housing costs are putting their household under pressure," Soltani said.
That uncertainty was underlined this week when Opposition Leader Angus Taylor confirmed the ideas floated by shadow housing minister Andrew Bragg – including the mortgage offset proposal tested in the OurTop10 survey – are not current Coalition policy, even as a separate DemosAU poll of 1,583 voters, reported by AAP, found 60% support for linking superannuation to home loans.
The release also acknowledges the case against the proposals, noting critics argue super should remain preserved until retirement given the long-term cost of forgoing decades of compound returns.
That warning has since been given sharper numbers: the Super Members Council has modelled that a 30-year-old couple withdrawing $35,000 each for a deposit today could retire with around $195,000 less in today's dollars, and points to New Zealand, where house prices grew at nearly twice Australia's rate after a similar scheme was introduced, as a cautionary comparison.
The council has separately warned that Age Pension spending is only projected to ease from 2.3% of GDP today to 1.8% by 2066, meaning weakened super safeguards could put that fiscal benefit at risk.
Survey data via OurTop10.
Get the hottest and freshest property and mortgage news delivered right into your inbox. Subscribe now to our FREE daily newsletter.
