Women opt for bonds rather than babies

SOUTH African women are “boycotting babies” while they concentrate on their careers and buy property, says a credit bureau.

In a market where it has become extremely difficult for firsttime home owners to secure mortgages, approvals for women have overtaken those for men at the upper end of the market.

Credit bureau Compuscan has found that for mortgages between R1m and R3m from January to March, 57% granted to people under the age of 30 went to women. For mortgages of less than R1m, this dropped to 54%.

The bureau’s data analyst, Jacobus Eksteen, said he had reached this conclusion after collecting and verifying consumer credit information from banks and mortgage institutions in SA, which submit their account information to Compuscan every month.

“While women dominate in the lower age brackets and lower mortgage balances, this trend undergoes a significant shift in the higher age brackets and higher mortgage balances, where men take the lead,” Mr Eksteen said.

The shift could be attributed to the salary gap between men and women in SA, among others.

A survey conducted by WageIndicator in November showed that women under the age of 25 were paid 15% less than their male counterparts. This increased to 25% in the age category of 3550 and reached 27% for women over 50 years of age.

“This gradual increase in the discrepancy between men’s and women’s salaries in the middleage group may account for why more men are granted mortgages in this age bracket,” Mr Eksteen said.

“The shift could also be attri- buted to the fact that more and more women are choosing to boycott the traditional roles of motherhood until their mid- to latethirties and then to re-enter the job market after they have raised their children.”

First National Bank property analyst John Loos said Compuscan’s figures were not surprising as the statistics had always shown a 50/50 split between women and men granted mortgages.

“I think it is worth remembering, though, that these statistics vary and are volatile from quarter to quarter,” he said.