Powered by MOMENTUM MEDIA
Powered by momentum media
Powered by momentum media
nestegg logo

Retirement

Impact of a mortgage improves engagement with super

  • October 30 2019
  • Share

Retirement

Impact of a mortgage improves engagement with super

By Grace Ormsby
October 30 2019

Taking out a home loan is a major trigger for Australians to actually engage with their superannuation, research has shown.

Impact of a mortgage improves engagement with super

author image
  • October 30 2019
  • Share

Taking out a home loan is a major trigger for Australians to actually engage with their superannuation, research has shown.

Impact of mortgage

The new report from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR) found that “super fund members who took out a new residential mortgage in 2014 changed their super contribution behaviour around the time they took out their mortgage compared to those who did not take out a mortgage”, according to CEPAR’s deputy director and UNSW Business School professor Hazel Bateman.

Analysis in the report recognized that the ways in which super contribution behavior changed differed depending too on the type of mortgage that the person had taken out.

“Those taking out a mortgage to buy an investment property tended to re-weight their portfolios towards real estate and away from their super, but owner-occupiers tended to build up their super after the real estate purchase,” added professor Susan Thorp from the University of Sydney Business School.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Super fund members taking out mortgages are also increasingly likely to interact with their financial service providers, pointing to a higher level of financial engagement, with Professor Thorp stating that “members who took out a mortgage increased their number of bank branch visits, use of their bank app and online banking, as well as phone calls to their super fund”.

Impact of mortgage

The report highlighted that superannuation is characterised “by low levels of engagement as the way the system is set up allows many super fund members to ‘set and forget’ until retirement”.

The University of New South Wales, University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney and Colonial First State all collaborated on the research.

Forward this article to a friend. Follow us on Linkedin. Join us on Facebook. Find us on X for the latest updates
Rate the article

About the author

author image

Grace is a journalist on Momentum Media's nestegg. She enjoys being able to provide easy to digest information and practical tips for Australians with regard to their wealth, as well as having a platform on which to engage leading experts and commentators and leverage their insight.

About the author

author image
Grace Ormsby

Grace is a journalist on Momentum Media's nestegg. She enjoys being able to provide easy to digest information and practical tips for Australians with regard to their wealth, as well as having a platform on which to engage leading experts and commentators and leverage their insight.

more on this topic

more on this topic

More articles