Irish household wealth tops €855bn thanks to Covid savings and house prices

Irish households increased their net worth last year to a record €855bn despite the worst health and economic crisis - thanks mainly to rising house prices and their savings, according to new figures.   

But the Central Bank has warned that the figures are not likely to reflect "the underlying experiences of all households, or the distribution of wealth".

The €855bn, which is equivalent to €171,769 for each person in the State, and is up €24bn during the Covid-19 pandemic year. 

The increase was accounted for by the increased value of investments and deposits, as well as an increase in property values even as household debts were little changed. 

"The rise in wealth is in contrast to the impact of the pandemic on many households," the Central Bank said.

The figures show that households' pay fell by €5.1bn over the year, but a rise by €11.1bn in so-called social transfers under the pandemic unemployment payments and the two wage-subsidy schemes, as well as a €9.2bn fall in consumption meant that "these counteracting movements lessen the impact of unemployment and the fall in pay experienced by household net worth in aggregate", the bank said. 

At the peak of the lockdown a year ago, unemployment reached 28% and at one time 1.2m people, or 60% of the private sector workforce, required some sort of welfare payment from the Government either in the form of PUP, wage-subsidies, or a regular unemployment payment.