Wealthiest cream $360 a day for three years
‘‘These net worth statistics tell us that wealth is unevenly distributed across the population, and this is unchanged from three years ago.’’ For typical households owning the home they live in, the value of their home rose almost $100,000 over the past
The net worth of the wealthiest 20 per cent of New Zealand households has risen by $394,000 each since 2015, while the bottom 40 per cent have seen no increase, Statistics New Zealand says.
The median net worth of the typical Kiwi household in the June 2018 year was $340,000, up from $289,000 in the year to June 2015 – mainly reflecting rising property values. Among the richest 20 per cent the median was $1.75 million.
‘‘The median net worth of the top 20 per cent of surveyed New Zealand households has increased about $131,000 a year.
‘‘This equates to almost $360 every day for the past three years,’’ Statistics NZ’s labour market and households senior manager, Jason Attewell, said. debt for people’s homes rose from $172,000 to $206,000 (up $34,000) over the three years.
Attewell said: ‘‘Changes to the value of residential property has a big impact on household net worth.’’
Net worth measures the value of all the assets a household owns, including property and savings, less all the debts, such as mortgages and credit card debt.
The median value of household assets increased from $400,000 to $496,000 (up 24 per cent) in the three years to June 2018. During the same period, household debt remained unchanged at about $42,000.
In the June 2018 year, compared with three years earlier, 55 per cent more households had a net worth of more than $1.5m.
It is thought the survey may not gain a representative picture of a small number of the extremely rich.
Half of all households held 94 per cent of New Zealand’s net worth.