Home prices, shares dint household wealth

Falling house and share prices meant Australians lost of some of their wealth in the December quarter, new data has revealed.

Falling house and share prices meant Australians lost some of their wealth, the ABS says. (AAP)

Australian households shed wealth in the three months to December, as the value of properties and company shares fell.

The net worth of households dropped by 2.1 per cent in the quarter, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.

That followed a 0.1 per cent fall in wealth in the previous quarter.

Wealth per capita dropped by $10,198 to $404,320, after a $2264 dip the previous quarter.

The metric hasn't fallen for two consecutive quarters since late 2011.

The change was largely driven by falling property prices, with real holding losses on land and dwellings totalling $170.8 billion.

This snatched 1.1 percentage points from overall household wealth

Financial assets such as shares were the next most significant factor, detracting 0.8 percentage points from wealth.

Losses on the assets were $141.2 billion and came mostly from superannuation because of falls on the Australian stock market.

The debt-to-assets ratio, which puts the spotlight on households' overall balance sheets, has also reached a four-year high.

Household debt made up 19.3 per cent of assets in the three months to December, the highest ratio since the final quarter of 2014 and up from 18.9 per cent the previous quarter.