New Zealand's household wealth on the rise, but inequality high

Tuesday, 28 November 2017

Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, became a New Zealand citizen in 2011 and is worth $3.7 billion, according to the NBR Rich List.

There are almost 38,000 more millionaires in New Zealand than last year, according to the latest Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report.

The annual report analysing global wealth shows New Zealand adult wealth grew by 11.4 per cent in the year to March 2017, and total household wealth by US$132b (12.8 per cent).

It also shows there were five New Zealanders who own more than US$1 billion (NZ$1.44b) compared to three last year.

The number of Kiwi millionaires, in US dollar terms, leapt from 166,450 last year, to 204,000.

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New Zealand's mean non-financial wealth per adult, such as real estate, was $222,390 in mid-2017.

* Richest 1 per cent own half the world's wealth: report

* Wealth inequality in NZ worse than Australia**

Credit Suisse takes information for ultra-high-net-worth individuals from rich lists. According to the NBR Rich List, there are eight New Zealanders worth US$1b, including Graeme Hart and Peter Thiel. Credit Suisse does not include families, while the Rich List does.

Mean wealth per adult has risen from US$67,275 in 2000 to US$337,441, putting New Zealand in fourth place behind Switzerland, Australia and the United States.

But New Zealand's wealth inequality is almost four times that of Australia; 18 per cent of New Zealanders have a net worth below US$10,000, compared to only 5 per cent of Australians.

Nearly 1.8m New Zealanders own between US$100,000 of wealth and US$1m, and almost 204,000 people own more than US$1m.

The report estimates the lower half of global adults collectively own less than 1 per cent of global wealth, while the richest 10 per cent of adults own 88 per cent of all wealth and the top 1 per cent account for half of all global assets.

Australia's wealth per adult is US$402,603 and the number of millionaires across the ditch grew by 200,000 to 1.16 million.

There are 148,200 people worldwide who are classed as ultra-high-net-worth individuals. Of these, 54,800 are worth at least US$100 million, and 5700 have assets above US$500m.

The total number of ultra-high-net-worth adults has risen by 13 per cent globally, or 19,600 adults, over the past year.

But 3.5 billion people – 70 per cent of world adults – own less than $10,000.

Globally, significant increases in worldwide wealth were driven in part by increases in non-financial wealth, such as real estate.

First NZ Capital managing director Martin Poulsen said the report showed worldwide growth was growing and New Zealand was a part of it.

'Most New Zealanders are benefiting from the consistent growth in wealth that's happening and that's consistent with other surveys,' he said.

'In terms of outlook, they make a clear conclusion that the Asia Pacific region is expected to grow and outperform on an ongoing basis especially growth in the Indochina region, so I would expect that to be a tailwind for New Zealand.

'In terms of wider wealth growth, it's certainly going to be helpful when our nearest and largest trading partners are doing well.'

One concern in the report is the low wealth of young people around the world.

'Low wealth is found disproportionately among younger age groups so there's a challenge for Millennials to accumulate assets,' Poulsen said.

'Millennials face challenging circumstances ahead compared to other generations; high relative young unemployment, harder mortgage rules, higher house prices and income inequality. '

The report found rising student debt, less access to pensions and lower income mobility created a 'perfect storm holding back wealth accumulation by the Millennials in many countries'.