Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/933296
10 maltatoday SUNDAY 28 JANUARY 2018 News Household Budgetary Survey The main points Food Transport Housing OWNED 2008 RENT 2008 OWNED 2015 RENT 2015 The cost of housing has surpassed transport as the second highest source of spending in 2015, almost equalling the household spend on food and beverages Spending on housing, food and transport according to households that own or rent their property, 2008 and 2015 Education €7 Alcohol and tobacco €9 Communications €15 Health €24 Restaurants and hotels €27 Transport €52 Misc. goods and services €35 Food and non-alcoholic beverages €85 Clothing and footwear €27 Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels €33 Recreation and culture €32 Furnishing, household equipment and maintenance €33 Average household weekly spend in 2015 The larger the box, the greater the amount spent. Orange boxes represent a decrease since 2008, while the increasingly dark green boxes indicate a large decrease over the same period 52.3% Owned without mortgage 18.6% Owned with mortgage 16.5% Rented 12.7% Other Household distribution by tenure status 2015 The vast majority of households in 2015 lived in homes that were owned outright, without a mortgage. These were followed by mortgage-owners, rented dwellings, and others, which include dwellings granted to occupants for free Motor cars Fuel & lubricants Maintenance, repairs Road transport Air & sea transport Other transport services Other transport goods With children (57,601 households) Without children €1,812 €770 €1,526 €956 €353 €223 €217 €503 €319 €105 (green) Around €50 each Kids are expensive! Households with dependent children spend almost twice as much on transport, mainly on vehicles and fuel. In 2008, there were over 60,000 homes with kids out of a total 141,000. Now there are 57,601 out of a total 164,000 households €35,000 + €27,001 - €35,000 €22,001 - €27,000 €18,001 - €22,000 €14,001 - €18,000 €10,501 - €14,000 €7,501 - €10,500 Less than €7,501 Southern Harbour Northern Harbour South Eastern Western Northern Gozo Household distribution by disposable income and region, in 2015 The larger the circle, the larger the number of households in a particular region, earning an annual disposable income corresponding to the range on the left-hand side of the graph CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 When compared to 2008, the difference between the tenure statuses of households was striking. Seven years ago, hous- ing costs accounted for 11.2% of households' expenditure in rental homes, compared with 7.5% in homes that were owned by their tenants. That means that in 2015, property owners are faring far better than those renting prop- erty when considering their spending on housing and ener- gy. The comparison with 2008, when energy prices were far higher, confirms that property owners today have benefited from the decrease in energy prices through the switchover to gas. But the same cannot be said of people living in rented prop- erties: the increase from 11.2% to 18% in housing and energy costs means another factor has crept in – the higher cost of renting a property today. The Household Budgetary Survey (HBS) is a widespread study carried out among a to- tal of 3,691 households over a 12-month period between April 2015 and April 2016. According to the 2015 HBS, the cost of housing in rented homes has surpassed transport as the second highest source of expenditure in 2015, almost equalling the household spend on food and beverages. Asked whether he believed the increase to be mainly driv- en by increased rental prices, Philip von Brockdorff, the head of the Economics Department at the University of Malta, said he believed it was. He said that while the in- crease in rental expenditure borne out of the HBS was sig- nificant, this was not reflected in the Retail Price Index (RPI) – commonly referred to as the basket of goods – on the basis of which the monthly cost of living adjustment (COLA) is calculated. He stressed that as a matter of policy, the weighting attrib- uted to private rents was low, and not reflected in the RPI. "This might have made sense in the past, but with more youngsters struggling to buy property, the number of peo- ple renting is growing," said von Brockdorff. The HBS also found that, on average, household expendi- ture increased by 14.2% be- tween 2008 and 2015, while average income increased by an average of 22%. Also of interest was the fact that the number of households with dependent children de- creased by 7.4% from 42.3% in 2008 to 34.9% in 2015. Malta's ageing population, its declining fertility rate, and the fact that youths today are more likely to leave their parents' home ear- lier could all be contributing factors to this observation. 19,155 households are without a water heater in 2015 22.3% of the average household income that is social benefits, down from 26.4% in 2008 21. 8% 14.5% 7.5% 24.8% 11.4% 11.2% 19.3% 15% 6.7% 21.9% 10.2% 18.6%