You’ve done everything expected of you. You have a job. You might even have a shiny degree. But you still don’t have the keys to your own place. Turns out having a foot on both the housing and corporate ladder can be quite a stretch for independent, young women. So maybe you shouldn’t have cancelled your yoga membership to help save after all. Thanks for that advice, boomers. Because you still haven’t achieved real success: being in a relationship and moving out. Who knew independence now needs a plus one? And why does this only seem to apply to women?
I’m no number guru, but it feels like if I want to move out of home anytime soon as a single woman in my twenties, I should’ve started saving whilst I was in nappies. But it gets better. According to the Office for National Statistics, as of April 2024, men are taking home on average £1.36 more an hour than women. No, I’m hardly going to pay for a deposit with this alone, but it all adds up. And just think of all the avocados, coffees-to-go and Netflix subscriptions this could fund. But maybe these luxuries are just reserved to men now, because a survey by SpareRoom, one of the most popular sites for finding property shares, found one in three women spend over half of their paycheck on rent alone. But men? Just one in four. So it also doesn’t take a financial expert to know that earning less but paying more is hardly doing wonders for the bank balance. Maybe even nappies are too late. Can I still be a nepo baby instead?
The gender pay gap was also female-focussed financial advisor Simon Gladding’s top reason women are disadvantaged on the housing ladder. “The tendency for caring roles to fall to women and the fact that women do more part-time work all contribute to this too,” he says. “There are advantages that women should make the most of. This could involve learning to invest, making the most of workplace pension schemes or negotiating a higher salary. Having only one income might also mean you aren’t able to access the same level of mortgage as you could if you were in a relationship and had two incomes. So where single women in particular aren’t doing these things, their financial situation will suffer.”
Finally, a beacon of hope. While men may already have their foot in the door, I shouldn’t have to wait to be carried over the threshold. Kyra Nagara, a 25 year old assistant brand manager, moved out of her family home in Manchester a year ago, after accepting a job opportunity in London. She rents a flat in Stratford with two women of a similar age, and found the bedroom on SpareRoom. “It’s a difficult balance. I’m earning more now but I’m also paying significantly more to be here,” Kyra says. “Physically, moving such a long distance away from home was really stressful and it took a lot of planning. But in London in particular, housing seems so much more competitive and lots of properties I was interested in would get snapped up really quickly. I feel like I got really lucky with finding this place, especially as I’ve never lived in the South before, so I couldn’t come to loads of viewings.
“Culturally, it also took me some time to adjust to the fast paced life of London. It’s very different to what I’m used to, even having lived in a big city before. But I really enjoy how accessible everything is. Transport is easy which is great because there’s always new places to explore. But that also all obviously comes at a cost which is more expensive than back at home. Financially, it was definitely an adjustment. Initially I didn’t realise how important it would be to manage my money and strictly budget but now I do that and allocate certain amounts of money to rent, food and leisure to ensure I stay on track. At times my mum has helped me out when I’ve felt a bit short on money, but I’ve never accepted anything major.
“I wouldn’t say I felt massive pressure to move out, and my family were really supportive. I moved out on my own timeline and would encourage others to do the same regardless of any societal pressure. I can see how it definitely would have been easier if I did this with a partner. Spreading the cost of a property is an obvious advantage, and when I was looking for rooms to rent I found a lot more two bedroom properties rather than just a spare room which would only really work for a solo, single person. But other than that I don’t think there’s any huge disadvantages of moving out as a single woman. Do what makes you happy. Moving out without a partner is a lot of fun and having a partner isn’t the be all and end all of life, especially whilst you’re young. Enjoy it and live for yourself.”
Well, that sounds amazing! I’m suddenly looking into what’s definitely a pyramid scheme in the hope of affording this myself. But even in the same city, not all moving experiences are the same. For Jodie McCartney, a 24 year old student and restaurant supervisor from Surrey, the fairly close move to New Malden had other reasons. “I felt I had outgrown my home environment and due to childhood trauma, I didn’t feel it was a positive place for me to be in anymore,” she says. “I lived in my childhood home with my mum, younger brother and occasionally my dad, but moved to a flat share with a 25 year old woman and a 22 year old man who are siblings and their mum owns the apartment. Because I’d never moved out before, I had felt a lot of societal pressure too. I had wanted to move for some time before I actually did, but I didn’t really know how to navigate the process, especially in this economy.”
Simon regularly works with women with different experiences when seeking financial advice. “Some women I meet have grown up being told ‘money isn’t for them’. This is pretty close to blatant exclusion of women from an important area of life. There are also lots of less obvious ways women might get this kind of message when growing up. Culture and media images seem to encourage women to be ‘savers’ rather than investors. But when investing, women tend to achieve better returns because they take a more diversified approach, do more research before investing, and trade less often,” he says. “So it’s a shame that societal influences tend to work in the opposite direction, because when women learn what they need to, there is nothing to stop them from becoming successful and financially empowered.”
Okay, pyramid scheme abandoned, how could I actually start the process of even finding properties that are right for me? “I found this place through a Facebook group for girls who rent in London. I had joined quite a few of these groups in the hope of finding safe spaces for women, as well as speaking to letting agents to look for other possible options I could afford,” Jodie says. “This was really important for me, because the most challenging aspect of moving out was leaving the security of a ‘safe’ environment. Having to go somewhere new was both physically and mentally a big challenge.”
This concern has also been brought to the government’s attention. A policy briefing by The Women’s Budget Group focused on the typically worse living situations for women compared to men, which included a lack of affordability, ownership and safety. But this still doesn’t seem to be improving. The long term affordability of property is something Jodie and Kyra have both had to consider. “As I have a student loan and I work, my spending habits haven’t changed much except for having to spend more on things like weekly food shops and bills. But my savings are affected more as this means I now can’t save anywhere near as much as I used to at home,” says Jodie. “This worries me for my future because the renting market at the moment is appalling. Having a job isn’t enough to rent a shared property nowadays, let alone on your own. It’s so extortionate to the point it’s making it nearly impossible for young people to ever have their own homes which is devastating as we work equally hard as other generations, if not more so.” These factors have also changed Kyra’s future hopes of home ownership. “Buying my own property is something I’ve always been interested in, but it’s not in my near plans. Because of how costly everything is, I actually feel more comfortable renting and not having the pressure of being tied to a property. But the renting market is definitely exploitative, especially when rents increase every year.”
Housing clearly has its problems. As someone who has not even started seriously looking into my options yet, I’m not entirely sure I even want to. I don’t know if I could face a housing rejection as well as Hinge one. But according to Simon, this is normal. “Acknowledge that getting on the housing ladder is hard, particularly for women on their own. Buying your first property in 2025 is challenging. It is more challenging in the 2020s than it has been for a long time. So, if you feel you are unable to get anywhere near buying or renting a property any time soon, then it’s worth recognising that it isn’t your fault.”
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