Why can’t women in the UK afford to buy their own houses? We ask an expert
It is well known that the UK’s astronomic property prices have locked many people out of home ownership – especially if you’re single. Indeed, there is no region in the UK where a man or woman on median earnings could buy on their own. But a damning report has revealed there is no region where a median-earning woman can even rent alone. I asked the report’s author, Sara Reis, why.
The title of A Home of Her Ownborrows from Virginia Woolf’s 1929 essaywhere she writes that a woman “must have money and a room of her own”. Woolf is talking about writing conditions, but I wonder if women have ever had the space they need. I don’t think this situation is necessarily new. But we know that, say, 30 years ago, wages and house prices were much closer than they are now. So housing affordability has decreased for everyone, but women still earn less. And if you have a gender pay gap, you will have a gender housing affordability gap.
It can’t help that more than 3 million women have unpaid caringresponsibilities. And some have high expenses, such as single mothers. Absolutely – this group really struggles to make ends meet. Two-thirds of homeless families with children are single parents. So there are groups of women for whom housing affordability is even worse.
Who are the others? Well, your ability to afford a home is linked to your income. Disabled women, on average, earn less and have the added challenge of finding an adapted home. And there are race disparities. Women from black, Bangladeshi and Pakistani backgrounds have lower earnings.
Which was my mum. Single parent, too, so I’ve seen how those factors intersect. It’s like a really dystopian version of Power Rangers where the Race Ranger, Gender Ranger, Class Ranger and
Read more on theguardian.com
