Media releases
‘Gen Y’ Females - Financially-Focused and Property Savvy
11 September 2013
More ‘Gen Y’i women prioritise owning a home and paying it off than their male counterparts, with 87% of 18-34 year old females (versus 79% of men) listing these property-related ambitions as a top lifetime goal.
The Westpac Home Ownership Report reveals that Gen Y women who are looking to enter or are already in the property market, are financially-focused and savvy when it comes to owning their home outright.
Gai McGrath, General Manager of Retail Banking at Westpac applauds young women’s ambitions to get into real estate.
“It is positive to see Gen Y women prioritising home ownership at a young age. Beyond this it’s good to see that they keep their eyes on the prize with the goal to pay off their loans as soon as possible. Truly owning a home is one of the best ways to start growing long time financial security. These young women should arm themselves with as much information as possible to make their money work harder as soon as they put their deposits down”.
Westpac recommends using an offset account, increasing frequency of repayments to fortnightly as opposed to monthly and making additional repayments above the minimum where possible. Employing one or all of these strategies will help these young women own their homes sooner.
The report revealed that Gen Y women also appear to have a better grasp of some of the important aspects of a home loan with 81% of Gen Y females understanding what a variable rate is, compared to only 60% of Gen Y males. They also seem to understand the saving benefits of focusing on repayments with 73% of Gen Y females listing paying off their loan sooner as the most important factor when taking out a home loan, compared with only 56% of Gen Y men.
Considering their familiarity with the home loan basics it is not necessarily surprising that this generation of women is more focused on prioritising their finances with many putting getting married and having children on the backburner when compared with owning their own home. In fact, 49% of Gen Y women listed owning a home as their top priority, way ahead of having children (14%) and getting married (5%).ii
“These women are financially-focused when preparing for their futures. It seems it is only once when they are comfortable with their financial position that they are ready look at other lifetime priorities, such as getting married and starting a family,” explains Ms McGrath.
Westpac Gen Y Women and Home Ownership Report (PDF 1MB)
i Gen Y defined as 18-34 year olds, as per The Oxford Dictionaries http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/Generation-Y
ii Australians who are already in property or planning to buy within the next twelve months who have not yet had children or been married.