‘You can be my sugar mummy’: Why female homeowners are closing the door on dating

‘I will send you your things’: Amanda tells her cheating boyfriend to go back to his own house in ‘The Holiday’ - (Columbia)

Issy was 27 when she bought herself an apartment in zone five of Greater London with four years’ worth of savings from training and working as a lawyer. She picked up the keys and painted the walls pink, adding a matching blush velvet sofa in the lounge and artwork painted by her closest friends on the walls. From the floor to the ceiling, it was all hers.

Single women and widows were legally allowed to own their own homes in England and Wales long before the 20th century, but banks and building societies would routinely refuse them mortgages unless they had a husband, male guarantor or evidence they wouldn’t leave work upon marriage or pregnancy. After the Sex Discrimination Act was passed in 1975, this tide began to turn. Just over half a century later, women now make up 47 per cent of mortgage applications following a surge in solo buyers – and the reaction has been troubling.