Singapore Households' Debt Up, But Asset Growth More Than Keeps Pace

Liabilities rise 5.2% in Q1, increasing for 6th straight quarter; assets grow 7.8%

- Chor Khieng Yuit

Singapore households have been racking up more debt since the fourth quarter of 2023.

Household balance sheet numbers from the Singapore Department of Statistics (SingStat) on May 26 showed that liabilities grew for the sixth straight quarter, rising 5.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2025 from the same period a year ago to $384.1 billion.

Professor of finance and real estate Qian Wenlan from NUS Business School said the debt situation bears watching.

She said it makes financial sense for a family to take a loan for their home or other big-ticket items so they can free up cash for day-to-day expenses.

However, she is watching out for signs that households are facing difficulties with repaying their loans, such as rising bad debts, delinquency or bankruptcy rates.

For now, the increase in household liabilities has not outpaced the growth in assets.

In the most recent quarter, household assets grew 7.8 per cent year on year to $3.49 trillion.

Mr Eugene Tan, associate economist at Moody's Analytics, noted that the liabilities-to-assets ratio, which measures how much of a household's assets are financed by debt, fell to 11 per cent in the first quarter, from 11.1 per cent in the previous quarter.

Mr Tan said this ratio has been on a downtrend over the past decade.