Mauritian Household Debt Tops Rs 220bn as Budgets Tighten

Mauritian households are borrowing more than ever, and the strain on family finances is growing. Figures from the Bank of Mauritius, the country's central bank, show that total bank credit extended to households reached Rs 220.3 billion at the end of September 2026. That is a rise of 12.6 percent compared to the same point a year earlier, and an increase of Rs 18.4 billion since the start of 2026 alone.

Home loans are by far the largest share of this debt. Mortgage credit stands at approximately Rs 154.6 billion, accounting for nearly 70 percent of all household borrowing. Personal loans and consumer credit make up the remaining Rs 65.7 billion. The figures reflect a growing reliance on bank financing, particularly as families try to get onto the property ladder or fund construction projects.

While access to credit has helped many Mauritian families buy or build a home, the rising debt pile raises real questions about how much room households have left in their monthly budgets. Loan repayments directly compete with everyday costs: food, transport, school fees and medical expenses.

The scale of that pressure is captured in Statistics Mauritius data from its 2023 Household Budget Survey. On average, an indebted household was spending Rs 11,118 per month on debt repayments in 2023. In 2017, the equivalent figure was Rs 8,289. That is a jump of roughly 34 percent over six years, a period during which the cost of living also rose sharply.

What this means for Mauritian households is that borrowing has become a structural part of family finance, not just an occasional tool. For the growing number of families with mortgages, monthly repayments now consume a significant slice of income before any other bills are paid. If interest rates were to rise, or if a household faced a job loss or health shock, the cushion available to absorb that blow would be thin. The concentration of debt in home loans also means that any cooling in the property market could leave some borrowers with assets worth less than their outstanding loans.

For policymakers and regulators, the data signals that household financial resilience deserves close attention. The Bank of Mauritius monitors these trends as part of its financial stability mandate, but the burden ultimately falls on individual families balancing ambitions of homeownership against the reality of stretched budgets.

Source: ION News