CoreLogic: Women may take a year longer to save for a home deposit
A few positive and a few sobering statistics on women and home ownership.
Residz Team 4 min read
Women have long been referred to as “homemakers” but a new report shows it may be harder for women than men to actually make a home their own.
The CoreLogic 2023 Women & Property report into women and home ownership has some fascinating, and a few sobering, statistics on women and home ownership. We look at some of the key points in the report, in the shadow of the recent International Women’s Day.
Saving a 20% deposit takes longer
For a start, women may take longer to save a home deposit.
Based on the latest weekly earnings data and the median Australian dwelling value at January 2023, CoreLogic estimates it would require 100 months of savings for men to accumulate a 20% deposit, compared to 113 months for women.
That’s a full year of extra saving women may have to do to save the amount that reduces the need for Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI).
Source: CoreLogic, ABS. Assumes a flat savings rate of 15% of gross annual income and a standard
savings rate of 1.0% p.a. on saving deposits. Incomes are based on the full-time, ordinary hours, average
weekly earnings for men and women, and adjusted by historic average growth in the wage price index.
Assumes a 20% deposit on a static median dwelling value of $702,725.
CoreLogic says that women are over-represented in part-time employment which tends to attract lower pay.
Name analysis shows females own fewer homes
The report says analysis of names on home ownership records indicates that female ownership is lower than male ownership in Australia and New Zealand.
Of the properties analysed by CoreLogic across Australia, female names were associated with ownership of 26.8% of properties, and partial ownership of 43.4% of properties. Male owners were associated with 29.9% of properties.
This is a slight increase in female ownership compared with 2022, up from 26.6%. However, there has been a slight reduction in jointly-owned property.
New Zealand shows more parity
New Zealand saw a greater parity in home ownership between men and women in 2023, but female names (22%) were still associated with less ownership than men (22.5%). Joint ownership was 55.5%.
Australian men own more houses
CoreLogic says of the houses it analysed across Australia, 28.5% were associated with male ownership, compared to 24.1% owned by females. Joint male-female ownership was the most common ownership associated with houses, at 47.4% but male ownership was “ultimately associated with 4.3% more housing stock.”
Women own more units
Female ownership of units was stronger. Female names were associated with 35.7% of Australian units, compared with male names being associated with 34.6%
of unit stock. Joint male-female ownership was inferred for 29.7% of units in Australia.
Implications for gender wealth gaps
CoreLogic says these findings have implications for gender wealth gaps, given detached houses and higher value property have been associated with higher longer-term capital gains than units.
Men own more investment properties
The report also found that male ownership was associated with more properties identified by CoreLogic as investments.
Males were inferred to have the highest level of investment property ownership in Australia at 36.3% compared with females (29.5%) and join male-female ownership (34.2%).
Owner-occupied property was far more likely to be jointly owned. Around half (47.4%) are jointly owned by males and females, but outright ownership is higher for men (27%) than for women (25.6%).
Eight suburbs appear to have more female investors
There are eight suburbs/areas of Australia where women (female names) were associated with higher rates of investment property ownership than male names.
These were North Sydney and Hornsby, the Eastern Suburbs and Ryde within Sydney, Murray, the Central West, and the Riverina in regional NSW, as well as the Inner South of Melbourne and the Outback NT.
CoreLogic says female rates of home ownership correlates with income.
“As noted in the previous report, there has been some scholarly research suggesting that women are more inclined to invest in real estate than their male counterparts where they have the resources to do so.”
Slight improvement on 2022
Overall, CoreLogic reports an improvement in parity ownership rates of men and women compared with the snapshot in January 2022.
“For Australia there continued to be higher rates of dwelling ownership among women in expensive parts of the country.
“While it is difficult to draw causal relationships from this data, income may play a part in empowering more women to own dwellings across the northern and eastern suburbs of Sydney.”
Summary
Women continue to trail behind men when it comes to homeownership, but the gender property gap has declined marginally from the snapshot taken in January 2022.
This could be encouraging news given we older women are the fastest growing group to experience homelessness in Australia. The 2016 Census reported that the number of women over 55 experiencing homelessness increased by 31% to 6,866 compared to 2011.
However, there’s a long way to go. The Workplace Gender Equality Agency 2022 Scorecard found the gender pay gap sits at 22.8% and women are 1.5 times more likely to be in the lowest earning bracket.
Owning a home is incredibly difficult for most Australians, and at least one gender is finding it even harder.
Residz can help buyers and sellers reduce the stress:
If you’re considering purchasing or renting a house, make sure you download the PEXA Property Report for that address. We have 12 million addresses in our database, with every report offering information on internet speeds, crime trends, bushfire and flood risks, investability scores and a whole lot more.
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