Women go solo as they climb the property ladder

Mortgage lenders are noticing the new trend among those buying alone as the gender pay gap narrows

On Buckingham Street, just off the Strand in London, an elegant Georgian townhouse with a storied past is on sale for £3.25 million. Its blue plaque marks it as the former headquarters of the Women’s Social and Political Union and the place where the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst once stood at an upstairs window, addressing the crowd below. “We are here, not because we are law-breakers. We are here in our efforts to become law-makers,” she declared, her voice carrying down to the River Thames.

Pankhurst was speaking to a crowd of women who would not have been able to get a mortgage to buy the house she was speaking from, no matter how much they earned. In Edwardian Britain, women were barred from taking out a mortgage or any form of credit without a male guarantor.

It would be another 60 years before that changed. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the landmark law that outlawed discrimination in employment, credit and services on the grounds of sex or marital status.

For the first time, women could open bank accounts, apply for loans and take out mortgages in their own names. “The change in women being able to have access to a mortgage in their own name is within my lifetime,” says Helen Pankhurst, great-granddaughter of Emmeline and convenor of the women’s rights campaign group Centenary Action. “And we know women still struggle with the motherhood penalty, the gender pay gap, and the pension gap.

Charting a century of progress, from suffragettes to independent homeowners  

Something so fundamental as financial independence took decades to achieve, and it reminds us that the fight for equality is far from over.” Half a century later, the evidence of that hard-won independence is no longer written on placards, but on property deeds. Skipton Building Society processed 11.5 per cent more solo female mortgage applications than applications from single men in 2024.

Skipton also found that 37 per cent of women planning to buy a first home intend to do so alone, compared with 35 per cent who plan to buy with a partner. The proportion of female-only mortgage applicants has risen from 36 per cent in 2020 to 41 per cent last year, according to the broker Mojo Mortgages.

The numbers show that more and more women would prefer to buy on their own terms than wait until they are coupled up.  ‘I need to support myself’ For Jess Pursey, 33, a customer operations manager, that resolve took root this spring when she bought a 40 per cent share of a new house at Dorchester Living’s Heyford Park development near Bicester, Oxfordshire. Her share cost £162,000 of the £405,000 full market value, and she put down a £16,200 deposit through the part-buy, part-rent shared-ownership scheme. She finally felt she had “space to breathe”, she says, and a garden for her cats, George and Winnie. “It’s challenging to buy a home on a single income,” she says, “but it’s all about adjusting your lifestyle. It was important for me to lay these foundations for the future because nothing in life is guaranteed. I might be single for the rest of my life, or I might be the breadwinner even if I did meet a partner.

Relationships and marriages don’t always work out, but that house will always be mine.” Pursey’s determination to buy alone was shaped by experience. “The house I bought with my ex-partner was in both our names, and we split the mortgage 50/50, but he paid the deposit and always said it was his house. You don’t forget things like that,” she says. After their split, she moved in with her father to save rather than rent, determined that the next time she bought, it would be on her own terms.  “There’s a lot of propaganda suggesting women should prioritize finding a partner over their careers,” she says. “But I refuse to settle, and in the meantime, I still need to support myself.

While I could live at home, at nearly 34 that wasn’t what I wanted for myself. “I prefer to budget monthly so I can return to a home filled with my belongings, a place I’m proud of. I may not have children, but I have pets to care for, and they help make my house a home.” ‘Owning a flat in London is a dream’ For Fionnuala Carr, 31, buying her own home was about finding stability after years spent navigating London’s volatile rental market.

Carr works as a data analyst in Canary Wharf, east London, and in March bought a two-bedroom, two bathroom flat at Springfield Place, a Barratt London development in Wandsworth, south London, for about £600,000. She saved £60,000 on her own over four years for her 10 per cent deposit. “Owning a flat in London is a dream, and I knew it would be a good investment,” she says. “You get better value for money in London than in Dublin.”

She had been renting with three other women in Balham, southwest London, her rent almost as high as her mortgage, but saw that many of her female friends were starting to buy on their own. This gave her the courage to approach a financial adviser to see whether she could do it too. “He said there was never a good time to buy, which scared me, but he also said there’s never a good time to sell either. If it’s right for you and you can afford it, go for it,” she says.

Not ready to live entirely on her own, she looked for a two-bedroom, two bathroom property so she could shelter a friend from the stormy rental market to help her pay for the mortgage. She says, “I’m not under pressure, wondering if the landlord will sell or if we’ll be asked to move. I can decorate as I want and choose who I live with. I remember a friend complaining about her housemates not putting out the bins, and I just can’t deal with that any more.” ‘

Shared ownership was my best option’ For Victoria Broomham, 32, affordability was the hurdle. When she and her partner separated, she sold their jointly owned house in Maidstone, Kent, for £272,000, using £15,000 of equity as a deposit to buy a 48 per cent share of a one-bedroom apartment at David Wilson Homes’ The Poppies development, also in Maidstone, in May this year. “I spoke to a mortgage adviser who told me it would be impossible for me to buy outright,” she says. “If I didn’t want to rent, shared ownership was my only option.”

She now pays £652 a month for mortgage and rent, plus about £140 on energy bills, and has stayed close to her job as a pharmacy technician at Maidstone Hospital. “It wasn’t like I was moving out on my own; I still had Buddy (her miniature dachshund) with me, so I’d have to find somewhere where I could rent with him,” she says, “but I wanted to stay on the property ladder if I could. “For the first time, everything is solely on me.

There are moments, like finding a really big spider, that make me wish I lived with someone else, but mostly I absolutely love it.” ‘I crave independence’ If Broomham’s story illustrates how shared ownership keeps women on the ladder, Georgia McGregor’s experience shows the persistence it takes to climb onto it.

The 29-year-old insurance underwriter is still searching for a one or two-bedroom flat in southwest London. She has lived with family to save and, with an inheritance from  her grandparents, has a larger budget than she expected. “I was surprised by how much I could borrow,” she says. “But it feels as if I’m being dismissed, with the assumption that I’m not a serious buyer.

Some [estate] agencies don’t seem to genuinely listen to my requirements.” She has been outbid on five properties and describes the process as demoralizing, yet remains undeterred. “Buying your own place gives you independence, and that’s what I’m craving,” she says. “I haven’t got a partner at the moment and I don’t want to wait. If I buy by myself, my security is on me and I’m not dependent on someone else for somewhere to live.”

McGregor has seen friends caught in break-ups that turned property into a battleground. “Some of my friends bought with partners and their relationships ended, which led to messy arguments over who gets what,” she says. “Others bought with friends, made clear agreements and now they’re using that equity to buy individually.”

She also plans to take a lodger for extra financial breathing space once she finds the right home. Fifty years ago, a single woman applying for a mortgage might have been asked for her husband’s permission or have been required to bring a male guarantor.

Today, lenders are actively courting female buyers, and developers are tailoring homes with second bedrooms suitable for lodgers, secure entry systems and shared amenities such as co-working spaces, residents’ lounges and gyms that appeal to solo occupants. Back on London’s Buckingham Street, the townhouse where Pankhurst made her stand has been modernized with a vaulted kitchen, marble bathrooms and a small terrace overlooking Whitehall Gardens.

Grant Bates, the selling agent, says the property’s history adds to its allure. “It’s a house of significance,” he says. “It was a place of activism, and now it’s ready for a new chapter.” A century ago, the suffragettes rallied under the slogan “Deeds, not words”. For this new generation of women, those deeds come with a mortgage offer attached.

Source: The Times