The latest research by estate agent comparison site, GetAgent.co.uk, has looked at how the two per cent house price premium paid by female buyers translates in terms of the time taken to accumulate the cost on the average wage.
According to a recent study, women pay two per cent more than their male counterparts when it comes to paying for a property. GetAgent.co.uk looked at what this translates to on the average cost of a property and then looked at the average net female wage available and how many months it would take to accumulate this additional 2% property premium.
The research shows that on the average UK house, women could be paying £4,624 more during a purchase. With the average women taking home a net monthly wage of £1,640, it would take nearly three months (2.8) in order to accumulate this additional property premium.
This climbs to 3 months in England alone where the average women takes home £1,657 a month, but the higher average house price means paying a property premium of £4,948.
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Nationally, Northern Ireland is home to the lowest gender property price premium at 1.8 months, while regionally it drops again slightly to 1.8 in the North East.
Unsurprisingly, women in the capital are at the greatest disadvantage. A 2% gender property premium would see them pay an additional £9,450. With the average women making £2,165 a month, that’s 4.4 months salary required to bridge the gender property purchase gap.
In Kensington and Chelsea, a 2% property price premium equates to more than £25,000 and would require the average female home buyer to work 9.6 months on the average net monthly salary of £2,620 in order to bridge the gap.
Founder and CEO of GetAgent.co.uk, Colby Short, commented “Getting a foot on the ladder is tough enough as it is without paying a premium because of your gender and whether this equates to a few thousand pounds more or twenty thousand pounds more, is beside the point.
While the vast majority of us opt to buy with a mortgage and are able to overcome the issue of affordability, a greater property price premium for female buyers would still require them to save for months more than their male counterparts simply to cover the additional cost.
Unfortunately, unlike other areas of gender imbalance such as wages themselves, it’s far harder to regulate a gender pay gap between the price paid for properties as every sale is unique to those involved. As a result, we could well see this gender property premium remain and even increase over the years.”
