This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Plummeting house prices meant Australians’ mortgage debt continued to grow faster than the value of real estate assets during the March quarter.

But Thursday’s data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed a fifth consecutive quarter of residential real estate losses, which was the main factor behind a decline in household wealth per person by $1,500 to $404,566.

The per capita fall follows a $10,198 drop in the December quarter and a $2,264 fall in the three months to September 2018.

The decline in property prices also pushed the ratio of Australians’ mortgage debt to real estate assets from 28.1% to 29.0%, matching the all-time peak reached in July 2013.

A resurgent share market helped household wealth edge higher during the March quarter, lifting 0.2% to $10.24tn. That follows a 2.1% dip the previous quarter, with superannuation reserves the primary beneficiary of a $147.8bn rebound in company shares.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index rose 9.46% in the three months to March, having dipped by 9.04% in the December quarter.

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Household net saving increased from $6.8bn to $9.5bn, driven by decreased spending, but people also had less disposable income due to a decline in employee compensation.

The ABS figures also show that Australia’s national investment declined $22.2bn during the quarter to $100.9bn, following a record high of $123.1bn during the December quarter.

Australia continued to borrow from overseas to fund investment, borrowing $1bn from non-residents during the March quarter as national investment exceeded national saving.

In seasonally adjusted terms, Australia has been a net borrower from overseas since the September quarter 1975.