Household wealth continues to grow around the country, due mostly to our homes, according to data released this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The figures show that total household wealth increased 5.8% ($735.0b) in the June quarter 2021 reaching a record $13,433.7billion. Wealth per capita rose to a record high of $522,032.
Residential property assets contributed 4.5 percentage points to the quarterly growth in household wealth, followed by superannuation balances and directly-held shares, at 1.1 and 0.3 percentage points.
“Growth in household wealth continued to be driven by residential property prices, which recorded the strongest quarterly growth on record (6.7%)”, Head of Finance and Wealth at the ABS, Katherine Keenan said.
“The strong property price growth reflected record low-interest rates, rising consumer confidence and demand being greater than the levels of housing stock on the market.”
The deposit assets of banks with the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) increased to an unprecedented $341.8b, as the RBA injected further liquidity into the financial system in line with current monetary policy goals. The liquidity helped the quarterly growth of $26.0b (1.0%) in banks loan assets.
“Growth in owner-occupier loan balances was the strongest in 5 years and consistent with ABS seasonally adjusted owner-occupied loan commitments data, which reached new highs over the first 6 months of 2021”, Keenan concluded.
