Tuesday

19th Mar 2024

ECB: German households less wealthy than Cypriots

  • Berlin graffiti - Germany's economic powerhouse image masks realities of average people (Photo: Valentina Pop)

Luxembourg tops the ranking of Europe’s wealthiest households followed by Cyprus while Germany is at the bottom, according to a survey report released by the European Central Bank on Tuesday (9 April).

The survey spans 15 member states and looked at, among other things, the median net wealth of 62,000 households.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Most of the data was collected in 2010 but some was gathered in 2008 like in Spain when the housing bubble had artificially inflated prices.

The same houses in Spain are worth much less today, Christoph Schröder from the Institute of the German Economy in Cologne told Spiegel Online.

The 113-page report looks at a range of indicators and notes that a number of caveats may distort results.

“The data for Cyprus appear not to be comparable with those for other euro area countries in a number of dimensions and should therefore be interpreted with caution,” says the report.

The report says the differences between Cyprus and other euro area countries “emanate to a large extent from historical, cultural, and institutional factors”.

Inheritances, intergenerational transfers, household composition, land ownership and allocation of household wealth between real and financial assets differ widely across the surveyed member states.

But among homeowners, the household main residence constitutes by far the most valuable asset, notes the report.

The median net wealth of homeowners across the countries surveyed is €241,200. Those with a mortgage report a median figure of €171,100, while those renting have a median net wealth of €9,100.

People in southern European countries tend to own their homes and are more likely to operate a small business unlike in Germany where more people have part-time contracts and are more likely to rent.

Less than 50 percent of Germans and Austrians own their own homes. The large role of public housing in Germany also contributes to lower home ownership rates,

“The low home ownership rate in Germany is in part due to the construction of social housing after World War II and in part due to taxation of owner-occupied housing and the lack of tax deductibility of interest payments on mortgages,” notes the report.

Meanwhile, households with more adults like in Cyprus, Malta and Slovakia also tend to accumulate more wealth related to real-estate than smaller households found more often in the Netherlands, Austria or Finland.

Given the comparative differences, German household net wealth comes out to around €51,400 compared to Cyprus at €266,900 and Luxembourg at €397,800.

Greece ranks in at €101,900, France at €113,500, and Spain at €182,700.

“It should be kept in mind that the survey focuses on one particular type of wealth, i.e. wealth of private house holds,” says the report.

ECB steps in, vows help 'as long as needed'

The ECB has lowered its key interest rate to a record low and vowed to take more action "if necessary," in a move aimed at alleviating recession and unemployment in the eurozone.

Latest News

  1. Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access
  2. Europol: Israel-Gaza galvanising Jihadist recruitment in Europe
  3. EU to agree Israeli-settler blacklist, Borrell says
  4. EU ministers keen to use Russian profits for Ukraine ammo
  5. Call to change EIB defence spending rules hits scepticism
  6. Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers
  7. EU summit, Gaza, Ukraine, reforms in focus this WEEK
  8. The present and future dystopia of political micro-targeting ads

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us