Vanessa Hale
Director, Research
John Gray’s book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, has left many with the impression that men and women are as different as being from different planets.
So imagine our amazement when we conducted our latest Housing Futures survey across the UK and noticed that the top five motivations for moving home were the same for both sexes!
It was only when you looked beyond these top five options that men and women’s priorities seem to shift. For men, some of the next most important motivations were retirement and looking for a smaller home. However, for women they were more concerned about better schools, mobile phone coverage, and living nearby to family and friends.
| Female | Male | ||
| 1 | Lifestyle (62%) | 1 | Lifestyle (57%) |
| 2 | Privacy (60%) | 2 | Privacy (54%) |
| 3 | Shops (59%) | 3= | Shops (49%) |
| 4 | Broadband (52%) | 3= | Broadband (49%) |
| 5 | Personal finances (51%) | 4 | Personal finances (43%) |
A number of other differences were observed, such as:
- When looking at housing types, women preferred character properties like Georgian/Edwardian/Victorian and art deco homes to men. On the other hand, men preferred bungalows and new build to women.
- When it came to outside space, more men were keen to have farmland attached to their property then women, whilst all waterside options, for example: lakes, rivers and sea frontage were also very popular with male respondents. In contrast, women stated that they preferred patios and small private gardens.
- Conversely, women named a swimming pool as their number one garden item (17%) whereas men named a walled garden as their number one dream house feature for outside the home (16%).
- When analysing dream items inside the home, the clear winner for men was a home cinema/screening room, just like in last year’s survey, with 14% of male respondents saying they coveted one. For women, window seats were much more highly sought after (16%).
- Interestingly, the AGA oven has dropped off the top spot for women’s top home accessory. For 2016, a statement kitchen island was the most highly sought-after kitchen item for both men (21%) and women (24%)
- Men and women were in harmony when it came to the most coveted bathroom item – with a luxury rain shower coming in top position for both sexes (28% and 26% respectively).
- When looking at preferred interior design styles, women opted for ‘Modern Minimalism’ styling, whereas men voiced a preference for ‘Traditional British’ interior design.
With all these differences it seems like there should be something out there for everyone!
To download the full report, ‘Housing Futures: The Village Revival’, please click here.