Soaring property prices drive wealth to new record

Steep rise: Pedestrians walk past a residential apartment building behind construction hoardings in the suburb of Hornsby in Sydney. Australian home prices increased 4.7% in the last quarter, reflecting the strong demand for housing. — Bloomberg

SYDNEY: Australia’s soaring property prices drove household wealth to a record last quarter, while net worth on a per capita basis also hit an all-time high, suggesting the wider population was better off on average.

Household wealth climbed 4.5% to A$14.7 trillion (US$11 trillion or RM46.24 trillion) in the final three months of 2021, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said in a report.