{"id":621388,"date":"2026-06-04T20:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T20:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/621388\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T20:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T20:38:10","slug":"just-10-of-households-hold-almost-half-of-irish-total-net-wealth-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/621388\/","title":{"rendered":"Just 10% of households hold almost half of Irish total net wealth \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Irish household net wealth increased by 9.9 per cent last year to a record \u20ac1.38 trillion, according to Central Bank of Ireland<\/a> data, driven by ongoing growth in home prices to well above their Celtic Tiger-era peak. <\/p>\n

Net wealth rose by almost 3 per cent \u2013 or \u20ac40.5 billion \u2013 between the ends of the third and fourth quarters, the bank\u2019s latest household wealth report said. <\/p>\n

The total net wealth of Irish households in December equates to the current respective market values of carmaker Tesla<\/a> and Facebook<\/a> owner Meta<\/a> \u2013 and the size of world\u2019s 17th largest economy Turkey, last year, measured by gross domestic product (GDP). <\/p>\n

\u201cThe overall increase in net wealth was driven by a rise in housing wealth, which increased by \u20ac26.4 billion [during the quarter]. Housing wealth accounts for 67.3 per cent of total net wealth and 60.4 per cent of the total assets of Irish households,\u201d the report said. <\/p>\n

Some 10 per cent of households held almost half \u2013 or 47.3 per cent \u2013 of total net wealth in the country.<\/p>\n

Irish residential property prices rose by 7 per cent last year to end up 21 per cent above their property boom-era highs, according to Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures. The national index breached the previous 2007 peak in 2022. The rate of inflation had eased back to an annual rate of 6.5 per cent by March, the latest data shows. <\/p>\n

Irish households have traditionally had modest engagement with capital markets, preferring to retain savings in bank accounts or allocate them to pension products, rather than invest directly.<\/p>\n

Households\u2019 financial assets stood at \u20ac609.3 billion at the end of December \u2013 or and were mainly composed of currency and deposits, at \u20ac220.3 billion, and \u20ac281.5 billion of insurance and pension entitlements, the Central Bank report said. <\/p>\n

The Government is currently working on plans to introduce tax-efficient savings and investment accounts next year to encourage people to put money to work in investment products. <\/p>\n

Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI)<\/a> estimates that the planned SIAs may attract as much as \u20ac7 billion of investment in the first year of the scheme. Some \u20ac20 billion-\u20ac30 billion could potentially be put to work in SIAs over time, it added.<\/p>\n

Sarah McGurrin, head of employee benefits with wealth advisory firm NFP Ireland, said that the latest wealth report does not tell the full story of the state of households\u2019 finance. <\/p>\n

\u201cMany households will see little direct benefit from this rise, particularly those who do not own property or are still saving to get onto the property ladder,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIrish households should not assume that wealth growth is guaranteed to continue. Ireland\u2019s economy performed strongly last year but the economic outlook for 2026 is uncertain and economic growth is not expected to be as strong this year as it was in 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish household net wealth increased by 9.9 per cent last year to a record \u20ac1.38 trillion, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,107348,1294,465,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-621388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-central-bank-of-ireland","tag-economy","tag-investment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}