New analysis by advocacy group Stop Renting Australia has laid bare how deeply the gender pay gap is undermining women’s path to homeownership. Using census data, it found single women earn less than men in all but 12 suburbs and towns across the country, cutting their borrowing capacity in nearly every market, news.com.au reported.
The biggest gap is in Ashburton, WA, where men earn an average $2,568 a week versus $1,196 for women – a difference of $58,132.88 a year, leaving female buyers at a severe disadvantage against single men in the same area. Similar gaps appear in mining and regional hubs such as Moranbah in Queensland and Roxby Downs in South Australia, as well as in parts of New South Wales, Victoria, the Northern Territory, and Tasmania.
Stop Renting Australia marketing and brand manager Tabitha Greaves said the findings simply confirm what many women already know.
“It’s a sad predicament,” Greaves said. “Seeing those stats across the nation, it’s not ideal and unfortunately it’s not a surprise and I feel like if you speak to any woman in any marketplace this won’t come as a surprise and sadly it affects everything else in life … it affects getting into property and I feel that gap which is quite stark in some areas needs to be bridged.
“We need to close the gap.”
Greaves said the pay gap translates directly into fewer women qualifying for a loan.
“Currently to qualify for a $747,000 home, a single applicant has to be on $142,000 and you need to have a 5% deposit, with no kids and no debts,” she said. “That’s a unicorn, and let’s just say you’re a single mum – she’s disqualified because she’s a single applicant with dependents.
“With the gender wage gap, it doesn’t just affect your take home pay, it means lower savings which means slower savings, smaller borrowing limits and all of these things amount to fewer options, and that’s why we’re seeing a lot of single applicants and single women renting for longer.”
National data backs that up. Australia’s latest gender pay gap on total remuneration sits above 20%, meaning women earn, on average, tens of thousands of dollars less than men each year – a shortfall that directly reduces their capacity to save a deposit and pass lenders’ income tests.
The study did identify 12 locations where women out‑earn men, all of them regional or remote.
On Queensland’s Palm Island, for example, women earn $9,413.04 more per year, giving them higher borrowing potential than local men. The APY Lands and Coober Pedy in South Australia, Lord Howe Island in NSW, several Indigenous communities in Queensland and the NT, and Duntroon and “no usual address” in the ACT also buck the national trend.
Greaves said those examples are welcome, but shouldn’t be the exception.
“I think it’s cool – I think that’s a fist pump in the air kind of moment,” she said. “At the end of the day it’s not a competition, it’s about affordability and it’s about us bringing as much value to the marketplace as a man would and so I think being recognised for your value – that’s what all of us want at the end of the day, whether you’re male or female.
“And it’s really cool when an area has women doing well in the market, but it shouldn’t be just these small areas for small wins.”
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