＂China Family Wealth Survey Report 2019＂ was released： the proportion of real estate with per capita property exceeding 200,000 is still high.

　　In 2018, the per capita property of Chinese families was 208,883 yuan, an increase of 7.49% compared with 194,332 yuan in 2017, and the growth rate was higher than the per capita GDP growth rate (6.1%).

　　The net worth of urban households accounts for 71.35% of the family’s per capita wealth, while that of rural households accounts for 52.28%. 93.03% of households own a house.

　　The financial assets allocation structure of Chinese households is single, and they are still concentrated in cash, demand deposits and time deposits, accounting for nearly 90%. Preventive needs such as medical care, old-age care and children’s education are important factors in family savings. More than 60% of the respondents are risk-averse.

　　Over the past 40 years of reform and opening-up, China’s urban and rural per capita disposable income has grown substantially, and at the same time, the capital market has developed rapidly, and asset allocation has become an important part of family investment decisions. As one of the important manifestations of unbalanced development, the gap between income and property has become the focus of social attention. "China Family Wealth Survey" involves four sections: household members’ information, household income, expenditure and property, family economic status and life attitude. It focuses on the in-depth investigation of household wealth from the perspectives of urban-rural differences, asset allocation, investor characteristics and investment channels.

　　Asset allocation and wealth gap are closely related to China’s economic and social development. The high proportion of real estate, single financial asset structure and high precautionary savings all run counter to the expansion of domestic demand, resulting in weak domestic demand growth. A single asset structure is more difficult to resist asset risks, which is not conducive to the stable growth of residents’ property. The larger wealth gap also has a negative impact on labor supply and production investment. In view of this, it is necessary to introduce practical policies to effectively change the current situation of unreasonable asset allocation and widening wealth gap, change residents’ investment expectations and narrow the wealth gap.

　　There is a big gap between urban and rural family property.

　　According to the survey report, the per capita property of Chinese households was 208,883 yuan in 2018, an increase of 7.49% compared with 194,332 yuan in 2017, and the growth rate was higher than the per capita GDP growth rate (6.1%). There is a big gap between urban and rural family property. In 2018, the per capita property of urban and rural families was 292,920 yuan and 87,744 yuan respectively, and the per capita property of urban families was 3.34 times that of rural areas, and the per capita property of urban families grew faster than that of rural areas.

　　There are some differences in property composition between urban and rural residents. Judging from the property structure of Chinese households, real estate accounts for 70%, the net value of urban households accounts for 71.35% of the family’s per capita wealth, and the net value of rural households accounts for 52.28%. The source of per capita wealth growth shows that the increase of net property value is an important factor for the increase of per capita wealth of families in China, and the increase of net property value accounts for 91% of the increase of per capita wealth of families. Therefore, urban households with higher net worth of real estate will gain more wealth accumulation from the substantial increase of net worth of real estate.

　　There are also obvious differences in the housing composition between urban and rural residents. Rural households mainly build their own houses, accounting for 53.18%, only 21.81% buy new commercial houses and 6.73% buy second-hand houses. Urban households mainly buy new commercial housing, accounting for 36.26%, while self-built housing accounts for only 24.43%, self-built housing accounts for half of rural households, and the proportion of buying second-hand housing is 10.97%. Under the background that the transaction of rural residents’ homestead has not been fully liberalized in China, compared with self-built housing, new commercial housing and second-hand housing have higher value. At the same time, the growth of China’s net real estate value is mainly reflected in new commercial housing and second-hand housing. Therefore, the difference between urban and rural residents’ net real estate value reflects the difference in housing composition between urban and rural residents to a certain extent.

　　The financial investment structure continues to be single.

　　With the development of capital market, the investment channels of urban and rural residents are greatly enriched, but from the actual investment share, the financial asset structure of Chinese residents is still single, especially for rural residents, which is consistent with the very low proportion of property income in China’s macro distribution pattern. The capital market needs to be further improved to promote the diversity of financial assets of urban and rural residents, and then improve the property income of urban and rural residents.

　　According to the survey report, the distribution of financial assets of households is still concentrated in cash, demand deposits and time deposits, accounting for 88%, close to 90%. Among the 35 OECD countries for which data are available, only 8 countries have deposits and cash accounting for more than 50% of household financial assets, and only 3 countries have this proportion exceeding 60%; Among the Nordic countries with wide coverage of social welfare and social security, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway account for 19.34%, 19.95%, 31.14% and 38.75% of household financial assets respectively, which are all at a low level. A single financial asset structure is not conducive to the balance of asset risks of households, and it is difficult to maintain and increase the value.

　　Judging from the self-evaluation of risk attitude and risk tolerance, residents with risk aversion attitude account for the majority. It is not difficult to understand that the financial assets structure of residents’ families is characterized by simplification when they are mainly risk-averse and have strong risk aversion motives.

　　In this round of family wealth survey, respondents rated themselves on their risk tolerance, with 0 indicating the minimum risk tolerance and 10 indicating the maximum risk tolerance. The statistical results show that 32.81% of the respondents have a self-rated risk attitude of 0, which is the highest proportion among all the scores, indicating that the group with almost no risk tolerance accounts for the largest proportion; Only 6.78% of the respondents rated their risk attitude as 6 or above; The proportion of risk averse people with a self-rated risk of 3 or less is as high as 70.33%.

　　Measuring the family’s risk tolerance according to the degree that the family can bear the loss of investment principal also shows that most families are risk-averse. 5.57% of households can bear the loss of more than 50% of the investment principal, 8.66% can bear the loss of 20% to 50% of the principal, 21.01% can bear the loss of less than 10% of the principal, and as many as 64.76% can’t bear the loss of the principal, which shows that more than 60% of households are extremely risk-averse. At the same time, most urban residents with high per capita wealth are also risk-averse, and the proportion of urban families who cannot bear the loss of principal exceeds 50%, reaching 55.2%; The proportion of rural families is as high as 83.88%.

　　Higher preventive demand has pushed up the savings ratio and reduced the investment share of other financial assets. According to the survey results, the main reasons for household savings in China are: "coping with emergencies and medical expenses" accounting for 48.19%, "preparing for old-age care" accounting for 36.78%, "preparing for children’s education" accounting for 23.97%, "other reasons" accounting for 20.57%, and "unwilling to take investment risks" accounting for 13.82%. The main reasons for urban and rural household savings are basically the same. Preventive saving for medical care, old-age care and children’s education has become the main motivation of saving, which shows to some extent that China’s social security system needs to be improved to reduce residents’ demand for preventive saving. Higher preventive savings lead to the simplification of financial assets structure, and it is also not conducive to expanding domestic consumption demand.

　　Real estate forms "crowding out" effect.

　　Generally speaking, family investment has a certain order, and after one investment reaches a certain level or condition, the next investment will be carried out. The ownership rate and appreciation range of real estate in China make real estate investment the first choice for family investment funds, thus reducing the share available for financial asset investment.

　　China’s households have a high housing ownership rate. From the perspective of residents’ wealth, the family wealth survey focuses on whether the interviewed families own houses, not whether they own houses in their current residence. According to the survey data, 93.03% households own one set of housing, 3.82% households own two or more houses, and only 3.14% households have no housing. The average number of self-owned houses in the country is 1.02, that is, each family owns one house on average.

　　The rapid growth of net property value has boosted the enthusiasm of family real estate investment. From the perspective of family wealth structure, the family property structure has not changed much, and the proportion of net property value remains high; Moreover, the increase of family property is largely caused by the increase of net property value. As can be seen from the report, 91% of the increase in family per capita property comes from the increase in net property value. In addition, compared with the national average household property growth rate of 7.49%, the growth rate of net property is close to 10.3%, and the proportion of net property in total household property is further increased.

　　In recent years, housing prices are in a sustained growth trend. According to the survey data, the net value of real estate is also increasing, which makes households form the expectation that housing prices will continue to rise. Although this expectation is blind, the investment decision of households is still mainly based on past experience. Contrary to the real estate market, the financial market has strong volatility, which affects the asset allocation choice of households and makes them more inclined to invest in real estate.

　　There are group differences in financial investment.

　　The survey results show that families with low financial literacy are more likely to face higher investment risks, so they choose to stay away from financial investment. High-income, highly educated groups usually have higher financial literacy and better understanding of relevant financial knowledge and information. In addition, they have higher income and assets, and they can invest in financial assets on the basis of meeting real estate and preventive needs, so the assets are richer in content, and they can make investment decisions more easily and get benefits from them.

　　With the increase of disposable income, the net value of per capita property owned by families has gradually increased. If residents are divided into 10 equal groups according to per capita disposable income, and then the differences of per capita real estate value in different income groups are investigated, it can be found that the per capita real estate net worth of households with the lowest per capita disposable income is only 41,406.346 yuan; The per capita net worth of households in the highest per capita disposable income group reached 441,735.8 yuan, 10.66 times that of the lowest per capita group. The original value and present value of per capita real estate basically show a trend of increasing with the increase of per capita disposable income, and the debt balance and debt ratio of real estate also increase with the increase of per capita disposable income of families.

　　In recent years, people have formed an expectation of rising house prices in the future, and the assets allocated to real estate by families with different income levels are increasing. Because high-income families have stronger purchasing ability and financing ability of real estate, the debt ratio and leverage ratio of real estate are also higher.

　　With the improvement of income level and educational background, the scale and structure of household financial assets show different characteristics. With the improvement of income level, the per capita cash, demand and time deposits of families have increased, and the growth rate is getting bigger and bigger. The per capita cash, demand and time deposits of the families with the highest per capita disposable income are 4.64 times and 3.86 times that of the families with the lowest per capita disposable income, respectively. It is worth noting that with the increase of income level, the investment share of residents’ demand and time deposits continues to decline, while the proportion of investment in savings insurance, national debt, stocks, funds, futures, loans, other financial assets and the balance of foreign currency financial assets gradually increases; With the improvement of educational level, the proportion of current and time deposits held by families has also shown a continuous downward trend.

　　Internet finance "urban and rural differences"

　　Internet finance is a typical representative of the "internet plus" model, which can reduce transaction costs and thus stimulate users’ financial needs, which has caused a huge impact on traditional finance.

　　The survey report shows that the most important function of Internet finance is consumer payment. No matter in the whole country or in urban and rural areas, consumers who have used the Internet consumption payment function far exceed the people who invest and finance through the Internet; Among them, there are obviously more groups who have used the financial investment function of the Internet than those who have raised funds through the Internet. In consumer payment, the use of Internet financial platform has gradually increased with the growth of family wealth, and the use of Internet financial investment means is far less common than Internet consumer payment means. At present, ordinary people still have some doubts about the safety of Internet financial investment, and the function of Internet financial investment needs to be further explored.

　　Relatively speaking, people are less familiar with the Internet financing platform. With the further development of Internet technology, through the application of new technologies such as big data, cloud computing and blockchain, the Internet financing platform has alleviated the problem of information asymmetry to a certain extent. Coupled with fast loan repayment procedures and flexible and convenient loan repayment period, the Internet financing function has developed rapidly in recent years. However, at present, Internet financing lacks iconic products in the fields of consumer payment and financial investment, such as Alipay, WeChat payment and Yu ‘ebao, and the popularity of various products is not high enough, and the utilization rate is relatively low.

　　In addition, the usage rate of Internet financial instruments is higher in developed regions. In cities and towns, more than 70% of respondents use the internet to pay; In rural areas, the proportion is less than 30%. The data shows that the proportion of residents using Internet payment methods in the eastern region is close to all urban residents, and the proportion of groups using three or more Internet payment methods is significantly higher than others, and the proportion of groups using two Internet payment methods is also higher than that using only one Internet payment method. The proportion of Internet payment in the central and western regions is far from that in the eastern region, and urban residents with relatively high financial literacy have gained more convenience from Internet finance.

　　(Source: Economic Daily, Family Wealth Research Group of China Economic Trend Research Institute)