More than half of household savings in 2025 was invested in new homes

Of the €38.5bn saved by Irish households last year, €19.6bn was put into 'real assets such as new homes', according to CSO data

Irish savers spent €19.6bn on real assets such as new homes.

Irish households saved €38.5bn in 2025, with more than half of that being invested in assets such as new homes, new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows.

According to the data, of the total saved during the year, €19.6bn was put into “real assets such as new homes”. In 2024, household savings stood at €37.6bn, of which €15.1bn went to real assets.

“The €34.7bn invested in these assets in 2024 and 2025 exceeds the €34.5bn total for all seven years 2012-2018,” the CSO said.

Last year, €5.6bn of those savings were in deposits — down from €7.6bn. There was a further €9.3bn saved in the form of insurance and pensions, up from €8bn, and €3.4bn saved in equity, up from €1.8bn.

The unadjusted saving rate was 19.9% in 2025.

During the year, total disposable income of households and non-profits grew by 3.9% to €192.9bn. However, the CSO said price increases “mean that part of this extra income was required to pay for the same volume of consumer goods and services in 2025”.

Household expenditure rose by 4.3% to €154.4bn.

Of the €7.2bn year-on-year increase in total disposable income, €6.8bn was due to change in wages and salaries paid to employees. There was a €2bn increase in the taxes paid on this income, which reduces the gross disposable income. There was also a €1bn decrease in net social benefits.

Domestic non-financial companies paid 37% of the wages paid to employees last year. Foreign–owned non-financial firms accounted for 30%.

“Compensation of employees overall has been increasing, so while the share of the total paid by some sectors has declined, its total paid in euros may have increased,” the CSO said.

“If we add in foreign-controlled financial corporations to the foreign-controlled NFCs, in the latest year, 34% of pay to workers came from branches and subsidiaries of overseas corporations. Clearly, household income, as well as tax receipts by Government, are very significantly affected by foreign multinationals' activities in Ireland.” 

Irish households held €153bn in debt during 2015.

Households' debt-to-income ratio increased to 79% in 2025 from 71% in 2024, which was lower than the eurozone rate of 81%. Private sector debt for households was 25% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2025, below the EU target threshold of 55% of GDP.

In 2025, loans to households increased by €2.5bn.

“So while some households were taking on extra debt, others were putting money aside,” the CSO said.

General Government consolidated debt amounted to €193.5bn or 32.1% of GDP at the end of 2025, down from 85.9% in 2015, according to the CSO.

Total debt in the private sector fell by 11.9% during last year to €629.5bn.