Rethinking Retirement: Why the Family Home Belongs on the Balance Sheet

Homesafe calls for a shift in how Australians view retirement capital, beyond super and investments alone

Australians are being urged to rethink how they define retirement wealth, with a growing push for a more complete view of household finances that recognises the family home as a central part of retirement capital.

For decades, retirement planning in Australia has centred on superannuation and investment balances. But with a rising number of Australians entering retirement carrying mortgage debt, and with housing wealth now the single largest asset for most older households, industry specialists say the traditional framework no longer reflects the reality of modern retirement.

Homesafe Wealth Release CEO Dianne Shepherd said it was time to broaden the conversation beyond superannuation and introduce the concept of 'retirement capital' — a balance sheet view of household wealth that includes the home.

"Retirement planning in this country has become narrowly focused on what sits in a super fund or an investment account," Shepherd said. "But retirement capital is the entire balance sheet a household has built over a lifetime and for most Australians, the largest line on that balance sheet is the family home."

"Too often, retirement planning focuses on what happens outside the front door," Shepherd said. "Superannuation balances, investment portfolios and income streams are examined closely, while the home is treated as something separate or untouchable. The result is a generation of Australians who are asset-rich but cash-constrained with their retirement income options assessed as though their largest asset does not exist."

Shepherd said the superannuation system, while critical to Australia's retirement framework, was being treated as a two-dimensional solution — accumulation followed by drawdown — rather than as one component of a broader household balance sheet.

"Super is a vital part of the system, but it is only one part," Shepherd said. "Discussions about retirement readiness rarely consider the home, even though it often represents more wealth than everything else combined."

The call comes as Australians live longer in retirement, now commonly spanning 25 to 30 years, and as cost of living pressures and uneven superannuation balances prompt a more practical conversation about how retirement is funded and sustained.

"A balance sheet approach does not prescribe a single pathway," Shepherd said. "It does not suggest every homeowner should access the equity in their property, nor does it diminish the role of strategies such as downsizing or drawing on superannuation. It simply broadens the lens through which retirement decisions are made."

Shepherd said adopting a balance sheet mindset did not require a trade-off between living well in retirement and leaving a legacy for family.

"There is a long-held view that the home must be preserved at all costs, typically to pass on as inheritance. That remains important for many families," Shepherd said. "But the home can also support financial security, lifestyle and independence during retirement itself. These decisions are not mutually exclusive and they are more balanced when households understand their full position."

With more than two decades working in the space, Homesafe is calling on policymakers, super funds and the advice industry to move beyond the traditional accumulation-and-drawdown framing and recognise the home as part of how retirement is planned, measured and funded.

"Australia's retirement system continues to evolve, but public understanding has not fully kept pace," Shepherd said. "The next step is for the industry to catch up with how households actually hold their wealth and to help Australians plan with their whole balance sheet in view, not just the part that sits in a super fund."