The wealth of Australian households has increased at the highest rate in over a decade, and the largest contributing factor is unlikely to come as much of a surprise: rising property prices.

New figures released yesterday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show that total household wealth rose by 4.3% to a record high of $12,033.5 billion in the December quarter – the largest quarterly rate of increase since 2009.

“Residential assets, which includes land and dwellings, accounted for more than half of the quarterly increase in wealth, followed by superannuation balances and directly-held shares.”

“The December quarter growth in household wealth was driven by rising residential property prices, reflecting record low interest rates, support through government programs such as the First Home Buyer and the HomeBuilder schemes, and pent up demand from buyers,” said ABS head of finance and wealth, Katherine Keenan.

“The growth in residential assets was seen across both owner-occupier and investor housing in the December quarter. Owner-occupier housing loans grew 1.9%, which was the strongest growth seen in four years, while investor housing loans grew 0.4%, which was the first positive growth recorded in the past two years.”

Despite the strong uptick in the December quarter, year-on-year growth in household wealth (7.0%) was actually marginally lower than the ABS’s long-term average of 7.3%.

Of course, it’s worth noting that these figures represent a picture at the macro level and don’t reflect the financial positions of many Australian households around the country.

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