The topic of the next Consumer Finance Salon will be 'Housing (un)affordability in Australia – The biggest threat to adequate retirement incomes?'

Australia’s retirement income system is serving us well. Most retirees today and in future are likely to be financially comfortable. But worsening housing affordability is likely to present a big challenge to our retirement incomes system going forward.

Brendan Coates, Economic Policy Program Director at Grattan Institute and co-author of the report ‘Housing affordability: re-imagining the Australian dream’, will discuss

- What falling home ownership will mean for retirement incomes;

- How rising house prices may affect the use of superannuation balances;

- What policy options are available to reduce the negative effect of housing unaffordability on retirement incomes.

Harry Chemay (Ambassador, The Transparency Taskforce; co-founder, Clover) will offer a response. Their reflections will be followed by an open debate.

The event will be moderated by Professor Kevin Davis (The University of Melbourne).

Brendan Coates is the Economic Policy Program Director at Grattan Institute, where he leads Grattan’s work on tax and transfer system reform, retirement incomes and superannuation, housing, macroeconomics, and migration. He is a former macro-financial economist with the World Bank in Indonesia and consulted to the Bank in Latin America. Prior to that, he worked in the Australian Treasury in areas such as tax-transfer system reform and macro-economic forecasting, with a strong focus on the Chinese economy. Brendan holds a Masters of International Development Economics from the Australian National University and Bachelors of Commerce and Arts from the University of Melbourne. He sits on the Victorian State Council for the Economic Society of Australia.

Harry Chemay is an Ambassador of the Transparency Taskforce. He has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. Harry commenced his career in financial services within KPMG’s private wealth division where he advised primarily within the accounting sector, with senior adviser roles at Horwath (now part of Grant Thornton) and WHK (now Crowe Horwath). Subsequently, he worked at Mercer, providing advice and asset consulting services to superannuation funds, university endowments and financial planning firms. He co-founded Clover, one of Australia’s first digital advice solutions, delivering highly transparent, low-cost investment advice and asset management to cohorts previously priced out of such services. An active participant within the wealth and superannuation space, Harry is a regular contributor to investment websites in Australia and overseas, writing on a range of topics across investing, financial planning and fintech. Harry holds a Bachelor of Business (Banking & Finance) from Monash University in addition to post-graduate qualifications in finance.

Kevin Davis AM is Emeritus Professor of Finance at the University of Melbourne and a member of the Australian Competition Tribunal. He was Research Director of the Australian Centre of Financial Studies and a Professor at Monash University. In 2014, Kevin was a panel member of the Australian Financial System Inquiry. He has undertaken an extensive range of consulting assignments for financial institutions, business and government, has held several board positions and is an active contributor to public policy debate. Details of recent publications and contributions to policy debate can be found at www.kevindavis.com.au.

Consumer Finance Salon: Housing (un)affordability – The biggest threat to adequate retirement incomes?