Australians’ wealth increasing as debt rises
Real wealth across Australian consumers has increased at a higher level than household debt over the past 12 years, but has seen a decrease over the past six months, according to new Roy Morgan research.
The research firm’s Wealth Report 2019 found that gross wealth per capita in Australia had increased by around 20 per cent in real terms between 2007 and 2019.
Around half of this could be attributed to the family home, with owner-occupied property accounting for 50.7 per cent of Australians’ net asset value, the report said.
In a sign that decreasing property prices had affected these wealth levels, Australian gross wealth levels had dropped by 1.4 per cent, or approximately $5,000, from the first to the second quarter of 2019.
However, despite declining home values, household debt had increased at a slower level than overall wealth in the long term, with per capita debt levels increasing by 13.7 per cent in real terms from 2007 to 2019, compared to 20.9 per cent for per capital asset levels.
In addition, the share of wealth held by women was increasing in relation to men, but was still not entirely even, having grown from 81.9 per cent of the wealth held by men in 2007 to 91.4 per cent of men’s share of wealth in 2019, the survey revealed.
The data also indicated that the richest 10 per cent of Australia’s population held approximately 47 per cent of net wealth, while the bottom 50 per cent had 3.6 per cent of net wealth.
