In Summer 2015, iff will start a research project on ”Integrating residential property with private pensions in the EU” for the European Commission, DG Employment.
In this research grant (under the programme ”Promoting the contribution of private savings to pension adequacy”), iff together with University partners from 6 EU Member States (Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, UK) will explore housing assets and pensions. The work will be to analyse the forms of housing asset conversion and assess market potential and the legal framework in the Member States. The objective will be to suggest a standardised product that can be sold cross-border with consumer safety features and with adaptation to national specificities and to legal, tax and regulatory framework. The research will focus on the needs of old age pensioners with regard to financial liquidity and income needs of homeowners, and will make sure that the positive effects that homeownership has for old age with regard to expenditure savings from housing consumption take into account other important aspects that determine living standards post full-time working lives (e.g. the family social capital, possibilities of part-time self-employed work in retirement). The research will seek to answer the following questions: To what extent can housing assets be used as a source for private pensions in retirement? How could such products be designed and supported by commercial, non-profit and state led initiatives? How can such products be part of household retirement planning options?
More details and a linkl to the project website will be made available in due course once the project has started.