The real value of South African households’ net wealth increased on a year-on-year basis in the third quarter of 2017 after six consecutive quarters of decline, a report showed on Wednesday.

Real net household wealth grew by an estimated 2.5 percent in Q3 2017, compared with the same period in 2016, said finance group Momentum and the University of South Africa (Unisa) which compiled the report. Effectively, the real value of household net wealth was about R175.6-billion higher than a year ago.

The real value of household net wealth is the difference between the real value of households’ assets, consisting mostly of their retirement funds, other financial investments and properties and their liabilities, which are mostly the value of their outstanding credit and other debts.

"The improvement in households’ net wealth provides much needed relief to consumers whose financial situation deteriorated steadily over the past three years," Momentum and Unisa said.

"A higher tax burden, coupled with increasing prices and stable debt service costs gradually eroded their income available for spending and saving."

The two institutions, however, warned that the rate at which households incurred debt might increase over the coming quarters, as indications pointed to debt becoming more affordable.