News: Women Take Only 11% of Home Loans; Gurugram an Exception-04-03-2026
Women accounted for just 11% of the 56,523 home loans sanctioned in 2025 across 13 major cities tracked by Urban Money, the fintech mortgage subsidiary of Square Yards, according to its report ’Women and Housing Finance in India: Progress, Barriers and the Opportunity’.
The cities covered are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Greater Noida, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Noida, Pune and Thane.
Women borrowed more than men in only two of them: Gurugram, at Rs 64.5 lakh against Rs 57.8 lakh, and Noida, at Rs 32.1 lakh against Rs 29.4 lakh. The report said this is probably linked to joint ownership structures and tax or stamp duty optimisation in premium markets. Chennai had the lowest average loan size for women at Rs 12.7 lakh, while Thane was the most balanced market by ticket size. Overall, the average home loan for women is Rs 23 lakh, compared with Rs 29 lakh for men.
The report called the gap striking because women make up nearly half the population and accounted for roughly 30% of residential property registrations in 2025. Industry surveys also show 75% of women name real estate as their preferred asset class, pointing to a disconnect between the intent to own and access to credit.
Among the structural barriers, the report noted that women form 28% of the corporate workforce, a share that thins at senior levels and drops to 8% at the CEO level. Income asymmetry, non-linear careers and employment volatility affect documented repayment capacity, a key factor in underwriting. The most cited reasons for rejecting women applicants are insufficient income, unstable employment history, low credit score and lack of credit history.
Kanika Gupta Shori, COO and co-founder, Square Yards, said women’s gains in education, employment, entrepreneurship and formal financial products have not fully translated into housing finance and property ownership. She described women as one of the most important untapped segments in the housing finance ecosystem.
Amit Prakash Singh, co-founder and CBO at Urban Money, said the opportunity lies in measures that improve credit eligibility itself, beyond surface-level incentives.
