Abstract
Using repeat-sales data on apartments in Sweden, we estimate the gender gap in housing returns. We confirm that single women's returns gross of renovations are lower than single men's by more than 2pp, that half of this gap is due to market timing, and that it is concentrated in short holding period. Adding administrative data on renovation expenses and traders' background, we find that women are much less likely to undertake renovations and to specialize in real estate professional activities. Once these differences are accounted for, we do not find any gender gap in real estate returns.