We know interest rate rises are hurting. But if you have to economise, and then some, to meet your repayments (we have plenty of good resources online to help you – see below) take some comfort from the fact that women are getting ahead in bricks and mortar.
CoreLogic’s 2022 Women & Property report for Australia and New Zealand shows women are narrowing the property gender gap, with the share of female purchase of property rising over time.
In 2021, 28.3% of property purchases made were by female owners, up from 27.4% in 2020 and 27.3% in 2019. Over the same period, the portion of male purchases declined, from 29.6% in 2020 to 28.7% of purchases in 2021. The past decade has seen an average of 42.9% of joint male and female purchases, down slightly from the previous decade average of 43.5%.
At the same time, Australian women have higher rates of home ownership in more expensive markets, the report found. Rates of female home ownership were highest in Greater Sydney (31.9%), including the Sydney SA4 submarkets of Eastern Suburbs (37.1%), North Sydney and Hornsby (37.0%) and City and Inner South (36.2%). Comparatively, rates of female home ownership are lowest in Regional WA (21.7%) and Greater Darwin (24.0%).
Meanwhile, the smallest differences in rates of home ownership were across Regional Victoria (where the rate of male home ownership was 1 percentage point higher than female ownership) and Greater Sydney (where the difference was 1.3 percentage points).
Buying your own roof over your head is still a great idea, if you can work it into the budget.