Jared Laureles
The newspaper La Jornada
Sunday, September 8, 2024, p. 7
The gender credit gap for home acquisition with Infonavit decreased by 8.4 percent, as women accessed a greater number of mortgages as a result of the relaxation of requirements for this sector of the population, according to an analysis by the institute.
From May 2021 to June 19, 2023, the gap was 23.8 percent, with an average of 14,032 loans granted to men per month and 8,626 to women.
However, with the launch of the Infonavit Women program on June 20, 2023, the average gap – which represents the difference between the percentage of credits granted – was reduced to 15.4 percent, since while men accessed 15,159 credits, women had 10,874.
In its most recent quarterly economic report, the Institute of the National Fund for Workers’ Housing (Infonavit) indicates that men and women begin their working careers with similar salaries and dynamics; however, the average salary of women begins to lag between 25 and 30 years of age, which could be associated with periods of intermittent employment
derived from motherhood, among other reasons.
As a result of these differences, women’s contributions to the Retirement Savings System and their Infonavit Housing Subaccount (SCV) are lower than those of men. With data from 2022, the institute exemplifies that at the time of exercising their credit, while women had 81 thousand pesos in their SCV, men had 103 thousand pesos.
Given this situation, the institute launched the Mujer Infonavit scheme, which consists of granting a 20-point bonus to women so that they can complete their prequalification more quickly. In addition, the age plus the term to pay the financing is extended to 75 years (men only have until 70 years).
As a result of the strategy, the report indicates that by the sixth quarter of 2023, the 20-point bonus improved the total score for 514,000 beneficiaries, 6.6 percent of the total number of active women without credit.
This means that they obtained better prequalification and credit conditions, which translated into more financing, the housing agency said.
In its analysis, Infonavit states that structural inequalities in the labor market affect prequalification for obtaining a loan. The information at the end of 2023 indicates that 23 percent of men and only 18 percent of women are in the range that grants the highest score for SCV balance.
As a result, due to these differences, women take longer to reach the minimum score, which contributes to their having less access to mortgage credit. Thus, on average, women exercise their credit between 30 and 40 years of age, while men are between 18 and 29 years old, the institute mentions in the document.
