South African households got wealthier in the first quarter of 2015 despite difficult economic conditions.<\/p>\n
This is according to the Momentum\/Unisa Household Wealth Index which revealed the average net wealth of a South African to be\u00a0R114,547. This figure is up from R103,229, five years ago.<\/p>\n
The research found that debt repayment as a percentage of income stood at 23.48%, while the average contributions to retirement funds as a percentage of income was 4.55%.<\/p>\n
Real per capita net wealth of South Africans increased by 0.8% from R113,634 at the end of the fourth quarter of 2013 to R114,547 in Q4 2014, the report said.<\/p>\n
In current prices, South Africa’s household net wealth per capita increased by 6.1% to R145,904 over the year to Q4 2014.<\/p>\n
Over the year household assets increased by 7.4% and liabilities by 5.5%, the Index said.<\/p>\n
Financial assets – mostly investments for retirement – comprised 70.4% of total assets, while residential assets made up 24.4%, Momentum and Unisa’s data found.<\/p>\n
Read: How much money the average South African is worth<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n SA household liabilities<\/strong><\/p>\n A household\u2019s net wealth is calculated by subtracting its liabilities from its assets.<\/p>\n A household\u2019s liabilities consist of all outstanding debts \u2013 that is, loans\/credit and unpaid incidental accounts such as municipal, cell phone, medical and school fee arrears.<\/p>\n Household debt is primarily used to finance residential assets and durable goods such as motor vehicles, furniture and electronic equipment.<\/p>\n South African households\u2019 total liabilities were estimated at R1 795.7 billion at the end of Q4 2014.\u00a0 This represents an increase of 5.5%, or R94.2 billion compared to Q4 2013.<\/p>\n However, real liabilities per capita declined by 1.3% or R323 to R25,897.\u00a0 This means that the use of liabilities per person of the population declined when measured in terms of the purchasing power thereof.<\/p>\n SA household assets<\/strong><\/p>\n The ratio of household assets as a percentage of disposable income was 430.1% \u2013 the same as in 2013.<\/p>\n The driver for SA’s household assets included:<\/p>\n The value of households\u2019 liquid assets (mostly deposits) was equal to 3.8 months of after-tax income, the Index found.<\/p>\n Required debt repayments\/instalments amounted to 23.5% of SA household’s after-tax income.<\/p>\n Momentum noted an alarming observation in the increase in borrowing to finance daily consumption.<\/p>\n It said that the fastest growing debt type is credit card debt which was 9.7% higher than a year ago. Contrastingly, instalment sales credit grew at almost half the pace (5.9%), while the growth in unsecured loans (3.7%) and mortgages (2.7%) also levelled off (3.7%).<\/p>\n Your take-home pay in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n How much debt do you have?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Your salary vs the rest of the world<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0How much the richest 1% of South Africans earn<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n
More on South Africa’s wealth<\/h3>\n