Financial assets of Australian households fall 3.6%

The average Australian’s financial assets have contracted 3.6 per cent since the start of the year equating to an average loss of $69,030 per household as of mid-June.

Digital financial advice platform Otivo and Digital Financial Analytics assessed the losses of over 52,000 households from market investments such as stocks and bonds, statutory superannuation, SMSFs, owner-occupied and investment properties, deposits and crypto.

Across all of these asset classes, statutory superannuation was found to have suffered the greatest depreciation of 7.3 per cent so far this year, over three times higher than the 2.4 per cent decline reported for SMSFs.

During a challenging period for markets both locally and globally, stocks were the next biggest loser with a fall of 5.4 per cent followed by a 4.7 per cent drop for crypto investments.

Investment properties (-2.6 per cent) fell more than owner-occupied properties (-1.6 per cent) over the period while deposits had the smallest decline of 1.5 per cent.

Overall, residents of the ACT (-5.3 per cent), NSW (-4.6 per cent) and Victoria (-4.6 per cent) have suffered the biggest losses to date.

In contrast, residents of the Northern Territory (-3.2 per cent), Tasmania (-2.8 per cent), Queensland (-2.4 per cent), South Australia (-2.3 per cent) and Western Australia (-2.2 per cent) have fared better.

The performance gap between the two groups may be at least partially attributable to how property markets have fared differently in each state and territory this year.

Declines for owner-occupied properties were seen in NSW (-4.1 per cent), Victoria (-4.1 per cent) and the ACT (-4.0 per cent) versus gains in Queensland (1.8 per cent), South Australia (1.8 per cent) and Western Australia (1.7 per cent).

According to Otivo and Digital Financial Analytics, the suburbs hit hardest by asset losses include Sunshine (-9.6 per cent), Brunswick West (-8.8 per cent) and Altona North (-8.6 per cent) in Victoria.

Significant losses were also reported for the NSW suburbs of Chatswood (-7.8 per cent), Stanmore (-7.7 per cent), Willoughby (-7.7 per cent), Petersham (-7.6 per cent) and Haberfield (-7.5 per cent).

Last week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that total household wealth had reached a record $14.9 trillion thanks to the continued strength of the housing market.

However, this data covered the March quarter prior to the recent stock market volatility and before national house prices fell into decline.

Jon Bragg

Jon Bragg is a journalist for Momentum Media's Investor Daily, nestegg and ifa. He enjoys writing about a wide variety of financial topics and issues and exploring the many implications they have on all aspects of life.