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While home ownership in Australia is now relatively equal between genders, women are still under-represented in investment property, highlighting a persistent “gender investment gap”.
CoreLogic’s latest 2025 Women & Property report showed that while home ownership has an overall parity, women are under-represented in investment assets.
The report surveyed home ownership, motivations, barriers and attitudes towards dwelling ownership among genders across the country.
Overall, home ownership between men and women remained balanced, with 64.4 per cent of men and 62.7 per cent of women owning at least one residential dwelling.
Similarly, Australian “rentvestors” reach parity, with 8.5 per cent of females and 8.2 per cent of men renting their property.
Seventy-six per cent of women said they owned houses, compared to 73.7 per cent of men, while 23.2 per cent of women reported owning an apartment, duplex or townhouse, compared to 26.7 per cent of men.
CoreLogic head of research Eliza Owen said ownership parity is likely due to men and women increasingly buying property together, with nine out of 10 joint properties owned by romantic partners.
Of the female respondents, 80.3 per cent said they co-owned their property with a male partner and 11.6 per cent owned with their female partner.
“That’s likely because of affordability drivers, leading to the formation of dual-income households as Australians become older and attain ownership of a family home,” Owen said.
While the report showed a “strong” gender parity in home ownership, women are still under-represented in investment property and other assets such as cryptocurrency and super funds.
According to the data, only 11.4 per cent of women own at least one investment property compared to 14.2 per cent of men, while 2.4 per cent of women and 3.2 per cent of men said they owned a few investment properties.
The highest gender investment discrepancy was in cryptocurrencies, where 24.1 per cent of males said they owned cryptocurrencies, compared to 8 per cent of females.
Similarly, data showed a gap in shares and superannuation, with 34.7 per cent of men owning shares compared to 19.1 per cent of women and 44.8 per cent of men holding superannuation versus 56.3 per cent of women.
Owen said the findings were not surprising and followed the trend of previous data, further demonstrating a “gender investment gap”.
“The presence of a ‘gender investment gap’ for women is an established concept, and various studies identified factors such as having less income, more risk aversion, being less comfortable with maths or lower rates of financial literacy as contributors,” she said.
Owen said the difference between men and women investors has been exacerbated over the years, with younger generations being further away from building a portfolio than previous generations.
Data showed Gen Z had the highest gender discrepancy, with 13.8 per cent of men having at least one investment property compared to 6.4 per cent of young women.
Conversely, nearly 10 per cent of male Baby Boomers had at least one investment property compared to 11.3 per cent of women.
To further the gender gap, the CoreLogic report revealed that 40 per cent of women do not own any investments, compared to 27.8 per cent of men, which can be linked to affordability and low income.
Only 58.9 per cent of women earning less than $100,000 reported owning a home, compared to 85.5 per cent of those earning $100,000 or more.
Owen said the ratios were similarly “stark” for men, with 59.1 per cent of lower earners reporting owning a home compared to 78.8 per cent of high-income earners.
“While the report points to a promising parity between males and females of dwelling ownership in Australia, there were discrepancies and more work to be done to empower women with respect to dwelling ownership and investment,” she said.
“Part of the challenge for women who aspire to own a home is the persistence of the gender pay gap.
“While the pay gap has been declining over time in Australia, this survey still finds a greater portion of women than men report challenges of accessing the housing market related to saving a deposit, high prices and being approved for a loan due to financial conditions.”
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