This meant that they refrained from spending the extra equity so that they were able to help their children purchase their own property. A third and perhaps the most important consideration, is that household income growth is expected to pick up and income growth usually matters more for consumption than changes in wealth.
For some years, growth in nominal aggregate household income has been unusually slow, averaging just 2¾ per cent since 2016 (Graph 9). For some home-owners, rising housing prices have provided an offset to this, even though the effect may have been smaller than in the past. As a result, aggregate consumption has grown faster than income for the past few years.