6 days ago
Young women struggle with property credit access: understanding the challenges
Women have disproportionately lower access to credit for purchasing property, particularly home loans, despite secured credit making up a large portion of total outstanding debt.
They contend with the general struggles of youth in the credit market, combined with the existing gender disparities in secured lending, says Jaco van Jaarsveldt, the Head of Commercial Strategy & Innovation at Experian said in response to an "Independent Media Property" enquiry.
'This likely means they fare worse than both young men and older women in property purchasing credit. This impacts the local economy by delaying household formation and consumption, reducing investment in local communities and stifling entrepreneurship due to a lack of collateral.
"Furthermore, it could lead to a brain drain, if talented young women seek opportunities elsewhere, impacting the local talent pool and economic dynamism,' Van Jaarsveldt said.
The business services company said women have disproportionately lower access to credit for purchasing property, particularly home loans, despite secured credit making up a large portion of total outstanding debt.
It said that while their representation in home loans has seen a meaningful increase over the last five years (from 36.2% to 38%), it still lags behind their male counterparts.
'This is problematic as property ownership is a key pathway to wealth creation, financial stability, and economic empowerment, including serving as collateral for business ventures. Limiting this access for women restricts their ability to build equity and has broader societal implications.'
Experian's Q1 2025 CDI reveals a nuanced picture of women's access to credit in South Africa.
The company said that while women comprise slightly over half of the adult population, they remain underrepresented in the credit economy from an exposure perspective.
In June 2025, women were associated with only R0.61 trillion (approximately 26%) of the total R2.31 trillion in outstanding debt. It said this indicates that while many women are credit active, the volume of credit they access is disproportionately lower than their male counterparts.
Compared to the previous year (2024), the report notes a significant positive shift. In 2024, for the first time, the Composite CDI for women exceeded that of the total market, indicating increased financial stress.
However, in 2025, women's CDI improved and once again sits below the total market CDI.
'This signals a return to more stable repayment behaviour and reflects women's resilience in adapting to the evolving credit landscape. Compared to the previous 5 and 10 years, women's exposure to credit (from a consumer volume perspective) has shown a slight increase over the last 5 years.
"This positive trend is observed across most individual credit products, except for personal loans, where women have seen a slight reduction in representation.'
