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Assets

The Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) 2020 was published on 19 May 2022. Since the first publication of 2020 estimates, the CCR has been retrospectively added to the 2018 data. As 2018 and 2020 estimates are now produced using the same methodology, comparisons can be made between them. This publication has been updated on 16 May 2023 and now includes references to 2018 estimates.

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Real Assets

Real assets are physical assets that have an intrinsic worth. Real assets include the household’s main residence, other real estate (such as holiday homes, rental properties and commercial property), land, business assets and valuables.

Household Main Residence (HMR)

In 2020, the Eastern & Midland region has the lowest HMR ownership rate at 66.8% while the Northern and Western region has the highest at 73.9%. However, in 2020, the median value of the HMR is highest in the Eastern & Midland region at €350,000. This has not changed since 2018 when the median value was also €350,000. Although not directly comparable, the lack of change in the median house price for the Eastern & Midland region between 2018 and 2020 is reflected in the CSO’s residential property price index. The index for the Mid-East region shows only a slight change between October 2018 and October 2020, increasing from 131.2 to 133.9 in that time (See PxStat HPA13). The region with the next highest median value of the HMR is the Southern region with a value of €230,000, a 15% increase on the 2018 value of €200,000. In 2020, the Northern and Western region has the lowest median value of the HMR at €200,000, a 25% increase on the 2018 value of €160,000.  See Maps 3.1 & 3.2 and Table 3.1.

Table 3.1 Participation in real assets by demographic and household characteristics and year (%)

Less than a third (31.4%) of households composed of one adult with children own their main residence, compared to 92.5% of two adult households where at least one adult is 65 or over.

Median HMR values rise with household income. The median HMR value for households in the bottom fifth of the income distribution in 2020 is €200,000, a 17% increase on the 2018 median value of €166,000. The increase in median HMR values since 2018 is seen across the income distribution except for the top fifth who have a median HMR value of €350,000, which is unchanged since 2018. See Figure 3.1.

 

X-axis label20182020
Less than 20 percentile166000200000
20-39 percentile200000230000
40-59 percentile229200250000
60-79 percentile250000272000
80-100 percentile350000350000

Median HMR values also rise with level of education. Households where the reference person has an education level of primary or below have a median HMR value of €200,000 in 2020, a 25% increase on the 2018 value of €160,000. Households where the reference person has an education level of third level degree or above have a median HMR value of €320,000, a 6.7% increase on the 2018 value of €300,000. The reference person is the household member considered to be the most knowledgeable about the financial situation of the household. See Figure 3.2 and Tables 3.1 & 3.2. 

X-axis label20182020
Primary or below160000200000
Lower secondary200000220000
Higher secondary250000250000
Post leaving cert220000250000
Third level non degree250000280000
Third level degree or above300000320000

Land

In 2020, the land ownership rate for households in the Eastern & Midland region is 4.1%, significantly lower than the rates of 17.0% in the Northern & Western region and 11.5% in the Southern region. The median value of land, (for those households that own land), in the Southern region is €433,800, more than double the €200,500 value in the Northern & Western region.  See Maps 3.3 & 3.4 and Tables 3.1 & 3.2.

Other real estate ownership is noticeably high for households in the top fifth of household income, with almost three in ten (28.8%) of these households owning other real estate in 2020. This is a decrease from 31.4% in 2018.  On a regional basis, 13.8% of households in the Eastern & Midland region own other real estate compared to 9.7% in the Northern & Western region. In the Eastern & Midland region, the median value of other real estate, (for those households that own other real estate), is €256,500, an increase on the 2018 value of €226,400. The comparable value for 2020 in the Northern & Western region at €168,000 is almost €89,000 lower than the value for the Eastern & Midlands region and is a slight decrease on the 2018 value of €170,400. The Southern region has seen an increase in the median value of other real estate between 2018 and 2020, growing from €186,400 to €200,000 in that time.  See Maps 3.5 & 3.6 and Tables 3.1 & 3.2.

Table 3.2 Median values of real assets by demographic characteristics and year (€)

Total real assets

The HMR contributes 62.0% of total real asset wealth in 2020, up from 58.9% in 2018. Other real estate and land also have relatively high contributions to total real assets in 2020 (13.3% and 11.8% respectively).  Valuables (which contributes 2.0% of total real asset wealth in 2020) include items such as jewellery, electronics, works of art, antiques etc. See Figure 3.3.

%ValuablesVehiclesSelf Employment Business WealthLandOther Real Estate PropertyHMR
20182.12.610.112.713.558.9
2020237.911.813.362
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Savings

In 2020, 96.6% of households have some form of savings, (deposit or savings accounts or a positive balance on current accounts) with a median value of €8,700. This is a 74.0% increase on the 2018 value of €5,000. This increase is partly due to households increased ability to save because of COVID-19 restrictions with 47% of households reporting that their savings had increased during March and June 2020 because of the COVID-19 crisis.  

The likelihood of having savings increases with level of education. In 2020, the proportion of households with savings where the reference person has an education level of primary or lower is 85.6% and the median value of these savings is €3,600. This is an increase on the 2018 median value of €2,700. For households where the reference person has at least completed a post-Leaving Cert qualification, the proportion with savings in 2020 is 99.0% or higher. In terms of level of education, the households with the highest median value for savings in 2020 are those where the reference person has a third level degree or above. These households have a median value of €14,600, a significant increase on the 2018 value of €7,800. See Figure 3.4.

X-axis label20182020
Primary or below27003600
Lower secondary37005200
Higher secondary40006500
Post leaving cert31006700
Third level non degree45009400
Third level degree or above780014600

Likewise, the proportion of households with savings increases as income increases. Nine out of ten (91.0%) households in the bottom fifth of the income distribution have savings compared to 100% of households in the top fifth. Increases in the median value of savings between 2018 and 2020 are seen across the entire income distribution with the bottom fifth seeing the value growing from €1,800 to €4,100 and the top fifth from €12,000 to €21,000.  See Figure 3.5.

X-axis label20182020
Less than 20 percentile18004100
20-39 percentile24006000
40-59 percentile40007200
60-79 percentile730011000
80-100 percentile1200021000

The median value of savings almost doubled for both owner-occupiers and renters between 2018 and 2020. In 2020, owner-occupied households that have savings, (98.0% of such households), have a median savings value of €12,500. The median in 2018 was €6,900. The proportion of rented households with savings was lower at 93.4%, and these households had median savings of €3,200 in 2020, compared to €1,700 in 2018. See Figure 3.6 and Tables 3.3 & 3.4.

X-axis labelOwner-occupiedRented or rent free
201869001700
2020125003200
Table 3.3 Participation in total financial assets by demographic and household characteristics and year (%)

Table 3.4 Median values of financial assets by demographic and household characteristics and year (€)

It should be noted that in comparison to administrative sources on household deposits from the Central Bank, there is likely to be underreporting of the value of savings in the HFCS, deliberate or otherwise.  With that said, it is still useful to make comparisons of savings estimates between different population groups and between different time periods.

Other Financial Assets

The ownership of financial assets other than savings is less common. For example, just over one in ten households (10.5%) own publicly traded shares in 2020, up from 9.7% in 2018. The highest ownership recorded for this financial asset are households within the top fifth of household income at 23.0%, compared to 3.1% for the bottom fifth. Households in the mid percentiles of income have increased their ownership of shares between 2018 and 2020 with those in the 20-39 percentile seeing the biggest relative increase from 2.9% in 2018 to 6.3% in 2020. Meanwhile, those in the upper percentiles have slightly decreased their ownership of shares between 2018 and 2020. See Figure 3.7.

X-axis label20182020
Less than 20 percentile3.23.1
20-39 percentile2.96.3
40-59 percentile7.59.7
60-79 percentile11.510.8
80-100 percentile23.723

Those households where the highest level of education of the reference person is third level degree (or higher) are also more likely to own financial assets other than savings. Almost a quarter (24.3%) of these households have at least one household member with a voluntary pension, compared to 1.8% of households where the highest education level is primary school level or lower’.  See Figure 3.8and Table 3.3.

X-axis labelVoluntary PensionSharesBonds or Mutual FundsOther Financial Asset (apart from savings)
Primary or below1.83.28.21.8
Lower secondary83.811.54.3
Higher secondary12.58.412.44.7
Post leaving cert18.58.69.54.3
Third level non degree1913.6139.6
Third level degree or above24.316.217.811.4