Auckland Property Investors Association general manager Sarina Gibbon says she is not surprised solo female property investors lag behind. Photo: Supplied
Sarina Gibbon says she still sometimes feels a touch of impostor syndrome when she thinks about her position in New Zealand's property investment industry.
The general manager of the Auckland Property Investors Association has been managing the association for 17 years and is also a tenancy consultant and coach.
"I look around and see high-profile women in property and look at myself and don't know how I got here."
She says compared to men, fewer women have been able to position themselves as property investment industry leaders. "The opportunities are not as available."
She is not surprised by CoreLogic research released on Thursday that shows solo male property investors still outnumber solo women.
Its analysis of holdings showed 21.9 percent of property investments are owned by solo women compared to 26.1 percent by solo men, and 52 percent owned by mixed couples.
That compares to owner-occupied properties, where 23.1 percent are owned only by women and 20.9 percent only by men, and 56 percent jointly.
CoreLogic property economist Kelvin Davidson said the concerning aspect of the statistics was that the percentages were not shifting.
"Stock measures will be slow moving but if this is deemed to be a big issue politically you'd be hoping to see a bit more change."
He said it was clear that it was due to women having fewer opportunities to invest because their earnings were lower.
The report showed no difference between women and men's attitudes towards investing.
The report found fewer women said they were working, and they reported lower incomes than men.
Over both genders, 55 percent of people who said they earned less than $40,000 a year owned no property and 49 percent those earning between $40,000 and $69,999.
Just over half of women said the property they owned had a combined value of less than $800,000 versus 46 percent of men.
Ten percent of men said they had properties worth $2 million or more, compared to 4 percent of women.
"The income disparity is the thing that feeds through to a reduced ability to invest in property, and other asset classes as well."
He said for women to be able to independently build wealth over time as efficiently as men, their incomes would need to rise.
"Hopefully over time as the gender wage gap shrinks it will allow more financial resources for investment in things such as property - it doesn't have to be property it can be other assert classes, too."
CoreLogic head of Australian research Eliza Owen said while it was encouraging to see more women purchasing an owner-occupier property than their male counterparts, the data showed they were locked out of investing.
"The gender wage gap means women take longer to save for deposits, have lower borrowing capacity, and are more likely to prioritise housing security over investment risk," she said.
"These factors compound over time, making it harder for women to build intergenerational wealth through property."
The data also showed women's property ownership was more concentrated in more affordable regions, while men had a wider spread.
Women's property ownership was higher in more affordable areas, such as Kawerau, where 27.6 percent of properties are owned solely by women, Whanganui at 26.9 percent, Invercargill at 25.8 percent, South Waikato at 25.7 percent and Auckland City at 25.6 percent.
Davidson said in Auckland, women's investments were more likely to be in apartments.
Gibbon said there were probably other factors at play beyond income, too.
"When thinking about property ownership investment, in order to make that offer, show up in the auction room and put your hand up to bid, you have to confront situations where the auction could very well get passed in and you still have to front up to the owner and say I still want to buy, let's negotiate. These are all very directive and decisive actions that are traditionally within the domain of men. Not exclusively but it comes more naturally to men.
"I think we need environments that are more welcoming, less judgmental. We need to encourage women. Long term we are going to have more parity - I hope so, if not I'm going to start questioning what I'm doing all this for."
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