Gender property divide hits home

Call it the gender property divide – the playing field when it comes to men and women and property has remained skewered, despite more than 50 years passing since banks started allowing women to apply for home loans without the signature of a husband.

Recent data provided exclusively to News Corp showed men owned more property than women in Australia, despite women often prioritising homeownership from an earlier age.

Women were also found to often purchase cheaper and lower-quality homes in order to enter the market.

The CoreLogic figures showed single females owned 24 per cent of property in Australia, while single men owned 27.7 per cent. Much of the remaining share of property was owned by couples.

CoreLogic head of Australian research Eliza Owen said salary disparity was a major factor behind the inequality.

“As long as you have a gender pay gap, that could contribute to a gender wealth gap,” Ms Owen said.

The latest data showed Australian women earn 13.8 per cent less than men on average, she said.

But this was only one part of the equation, with wider socio-economic trends and cultural factors also playing a part.

“ABS census data suggests that single parent and lone adult households in Australia that are headed by women are about 64 per cent, but women have a relatively low representation in home ownership,” she said.

In Sydney, where the median house price is well over $1m, more single women and mothers are buying off-the-plan apartments rather than detached housing.

Mortgage Advice Bureau managing director Darren Cantor said buying property on a single income was difficult.

“If you don’t have that second income, it’s very, very challenging to save for a deposit while renting,” he said. Finder’s Consumer Sentiment Tracker showed the average Australian man had $28,528 in cash savings, while the average woman had $17,775.

Mr Cantor said most banks didn’t consider loan applications where the size of the mortgage was more than five times the borrower’s income, so even if the applicant had a 20 per cent deposit and was earning $100,000 a year, they were limited to properties worth about $600,000.

Mirvac transactions over the past two years showed women made up 43 per cent of single households purchasing apartments, compared with 31 per cent purchasing houses. Figures from Sydney and Melbourne made up the bulk of the data.

“Affordability is a big thing,” Mirvac general manager of design, sales and marketing Diana Sarcasmo said.

“An apartment might be the cheaper option, but often it’s the preferred option as well.”

She said the majority of women buying Mirvac apartments looked for safety as their highest priority.