Housing weakness sees drop in wealth

Falling house prices and weakness in the stockmarket drove a 2.1 per cent drop in household wealth for the December quarter.

Falling house prices and weakness in the stockmarket late last year drove a 2.1 per cent drop in household wealth for the December quarter, the largest quarterly fall since September 2011.

Household wealth per capita fell $10,198 to $404,319, following a $2263 fall in household wealth in the previous quarter, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

That reflected falling property prices and superannuation losses due to stockmarket falls during the December quarter, the ABS said.

It was the first time since 2011 that household wealth per capita had declined for two consecutive quarters.

Over the December quarter, the ASX 200 fell 9.04 per cent, compared with a 0.21 per cent rise the previous quarter.

The market falls came as home values in Sydney fell 3.9 per cent over the December quarter, according to CoreLogic, in what was the biggest quarterly drop since 1983. Melbourne values fell 3.2 per cent over the same period.

The ABS said the debt-to-asset ratio among Australian households, which shows how household balance sheets are geared, rose to its highest level in four years, with debt equal to 19.3 per cent of assets, up from 18.9 per cent in the previous quarter.

Meanwhile the ratio for mortgage debt to residential land and dwellings lifted to 28.3 per cent, indicating mortgage debt grew faster than the value of homes. “The rise reflects falling residential property prices rather than strong growth in mortgage debt,” the ABS noted.