Household Finance and Consumption Survey 2023

In 2023, the median net wealth of households in Ireland was €256,900, up from €198,400 in 2020. This was a 29.5% increase in three years, which continued the upwards trend seen since 2018 when net wealth was €159,700. The median net wealth value, (defined as gross wealth less debt), is obtained by arranging all households in ascending order from the smallest to the largest value and then selecting the middle value. Therefore, in 2023, half of all households had a net wealth value of less than €256,900.
A household’s gross wealth is the value of its real and financial assets. Real assets include the household main residence (HMR), land, business, vehicles, valuables (jewellery, electronics, antiques, works of art etc.) and other real estate such as rental properties, holiday homes and business premises. Financial assets include money held in current and savings accounts, bonds, mutual funds, voluntary pensions, shares and other financial products or investments. In 2023, the median gross wealth of households in Ireland was €335,900. Please see figure 2.1, table 2.1 and PxStat table HFC2036.

In 2023, the most common asset owned was savings, with 98% of households having some money either in current or savings accounts. The next most common assets were valuables owned by 88.6% of households, vehicles owned by 79.7% and the HMR owned by 67.9%. The least common asset owned was land with 8.9% of households owning some. Since 2018, there was a decline in the share of households owning a self-employment business, from 18.1% to 14%. Please see figure 2.2, table 2.2 and PxStat table HFC2001.

The share of households owning “other” financial assets increased from 6.4% in 2018 to 10.3% in 2023. This category includes, amongst other things, cryptocurrency. Although the share of households owning cryptocurrency in 2023 was less than 1.5%, it grew steadily since 2018 when it was just half a percent. Please see figure 2.3 and PxStat table HFC2051.

In 2023, the household main residence (HMR), overtook land as the most valuable asset owned by households. In 2023, the median value of the HMR was €340,000, a 30.8% increase on the 2020 value of €260,000. This increase was reflected in the CSO residential property price index which increased from 137.2 in December 2020 to 175.7 in December 2023, a 28.1% increase. The third most valuable asset was other real estate with a median value of €265,200. The median values of the remaining assets were much lower than the first three, ranging from €45,000 for self-employment business wealth to €8,200 for shares. Please note that median values are conditional on ownership, therefore, when estimating the median, households that do not own the asset are not included. Please see figure 2.4, table 2.2 and PxStat table HFC2001.

The HMR was the asset with the highest median value and, unsurprisingly, it was also the asset making the biggest contribution to household gross wealth. In 2023, the HMR accounted for 46.2% of all gross household wealth. Since 2018 the share of self-employment business wealth increased, while the share of other real estate decreased. Financial assets, some of which are more liquid than real assets meaning they can be easier converted to cash, contributed 15.4% in 2023. Please see figure 2.5, table 2.3 and PxStat table HFC2001.

It should be noted that in comparison to administrative sources on household deposits from the Central Bank, there was likely to be under-reporting 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 years.

Net wealth is calculated by subtracting debt from gross wealth. In 2023, 65.6% of households in Ireland had some form of debt, down from 69.4% in 2020. This can be partially explained by an increase in the number of elderly households as these tend to have less debt than younger households. In 2018, 23.2% of HFCS households had a reference person aged 65 and over, this has increased to 24.4% in 2020 and 25.6% in 2023. The household reference person is the household member who is most knowledgeable of the household’s finances at the time of interview. Please see figure 2.6, table 2.4 and PxStat table HFC2015.

The most common type of debt held by households was a non-mortgage loan. This includes personal loans, home loans, personal contract plans (PCPs) for cars etc. More than four in ten (43.4%) households had a non-mortgage loan, which was a slight drop from the 2020 value of 46.9%. There was a notable drop in the number of households with credit card debt since 2018, when 41.9% of households had this type of debt. In 2023, 24.3% of households had credit card debt. Although the number of households owning land and other real estate remained relatively stable since 2018, the share of households with mortgages on these properties was trending downwards with 10.0% of households in 2018 having a mortgage on other property, compared with 7.7% in 2020 and 6.0% in 2023. Please see figures 2.5, 2.7 and PxStat table HFC2015.

The loans with the highest median amount owed were mortgages on the HMR followed by mortgages on other property. There was a slight downward trend in the median amount owed on HMR mortgages since 2018 when it was €124,400. In 2023, it was €117,900. There was an upward trend in the median amount owed on non-mortgage loans with values of €7,000 in 2018, €7,900 in 2020 and €9,500 in 2023. Please see figure 2.8, table 2.4 and PxStat table HFC2015.

As a portion of all outstanding debt, HMR mortgages were by far the largest, contributing 72.4% to the total amount of outstanding debt in 2023. The portion of total debt attributed to mortgages on other properties has been declining, almost halving since 2018, when it was 23.3%, to 14.7% in 2023. This led to an increase in the portions contributed by the other types of debt. Please see figure 2.9 and PxStat table HFC2015.

Although the total amount of debt associated with other property mortgages had been decreasing, there was a notable increase in the number of mortgages drawn down in the years since 2020. For households that have mortgages on other property, the most likely drawdown date would have been in the years around 2006 coinciding with the property boom at the time. There were relatively few mortgages with drawdown dates in the years around 2012, the time of the property crash but there was a rebound in the years since 2020. Please see figure 2.10 and PxStat table HFC2058. 

Less than one in ten (8.9%) households were credit constrained in 2023, up from 6.6% in 2020. A credit constrained household is one that was either refused credit, did not receive the full amount requested or did not apply for credit due to perceived refusal in the three years preceding the interview date. Please see figure 2.11 and PxStat table HFC2022.

Respondents to the survey were asked if, in an emergency, could they get financial assistance of €5,000 from friends or family. In 2023, over a quarter (27%) of households said that they could not. This was almost the same as in 2020, but less than in 2018, when 34.8% of households said they could not get a loan of €5,000 from friends or family. Please see figure 2.12 and PxStat table HFC2052.