By Mary Madigan

Copyright news

Dr Kate Adams is a veterinarian and a star on TheReal Housewives of Sydney – she’s even completed half a law degree – and yet, she is still constantly underestimated by men.

The 42-year-old, who owns the Bondi Vet clinic, told news.com.au that two years ago, she was finally in a position to buy a home in Sydney’s affluent eastern suburbs.

“I’ve bought and sold properties throughout my life so I could get to a stage where I could buy something I wanted to live in,” she told news.com.au.

When Dr Adams finally found a $3.5 million property she wanted to buy, she put down a deposit without obtaining any financial pre-approval for a loan.

A bold move, but she was confident because she had multiple investment properties and a solid income.

Still, she needed to find a mortgage broker immediately because she had an unconditional four-week settlement.

Dr Adams said because the property was worth a staggering $3.5 million, she needed to borrow a “reasonably large figure for a single female” – and it had to happen fast.

When she called a mortgage broker her friend had recommended and told him how much she wanted to borrow – she was met with silence.

“He said to me, ‘before we go down this path, I need to tell you the bank won’t consider any income that is made from OnlyFans’,” she recalled.

Dr Adams said her initial reaction was to think, “Wow, the subconscious misogyny is at an all-time high!”

She said she was in disbelief that the mortgage broker would jump to such a random conclusion.

“He thinks the only way women can make a crust in this world is if they are on OnlyFans,” she said.

Dr Adams was stunned, claiming the mortgage broker doubled down and said banks won’t lend money to women “taking off their clothes on the internet”.

“I was so floored,” she said.

When Dr Adams explained that she wasn’t on OnlyFans, and was in fact a doctor and a reality TV star, she said the broker was immediately “embarrassed” and apologetic.

She said the whole mortgage broker experience left her furious and extremely frustrated.

“Who just presumes that just because a single female is asking for a lot of money is on OnlyFans? Actually what is wrong with OnlyFans?” She added.

“Money is money!”

Dr Adams argued that the mortgage broker didn’t know her from a bar of soap, and made a pretty wild assumption on the spot.

“He had absolutely no information about me. What if I wasn’t Dr Kate Adams? This is what women have to go through,” she said.

While this was a particularly obvious experience of sexism, Dr Adams said that she is constantly dealing with men undermining her.

“Stop treating me like a second-rate citizen,” she said.

The Aussie vet says she’s had too many sexist experiences even to list, but a few fresh ones really stand out in her mind.

Recently, she had a tradie come to her house to provide a quote for some floorboards she wanted to install.

When she asked him a question about the floors, he responded by saying, “You don’t have to worry your pretty little head about that.”

He then asked if she had a husband he could speak to.

It isn’t always so blatant when she’s looking for property, but she often finds that real estate agents will ignore her.

Instead, the agents tend to talk to couples and always “direct the questions to the men”.

It really bothers her that women are still sometimes treated this way, especially since she feels so passionate about women being financially independent.

“I watched my sister get similar treatment when she got her loan,” she said.

Dr Adams revealed she started investing in real estate because she didn’t want to have to rely on a man financially and needed a secure retirement plan.

“I don’t have superannuation being a small-business owner,” she explained.

The other reason she started investing is that she couldn’t afford to buy where she wanted to live.

Instead, she’d rent near her work in Sydney’s east and invest where she could afford to buy as long-term plan.

“Gone are the days when you can buy a home and that is just your home. When you are young you can’t afford the house you want,” she said.

“You can’t buy an apartment in Bondi, you can’t buy an apartment in the eastern suburbs. You need to go as far out as possible and buy whatever you can afford.”

Dr Adams has spent decades buying properties, renovating them, or waiting for capital growth and reselling them. At this point, she has bought and sold at least five different properties, and has bought all across Australia.

Dr Adams has a simple plan for all her investment properties.

“Stick a person in there that can rent it so they can at least pay your mortgage and just wait for the market to go up,” she said.

“When you get to a stage here, you can make capital gains, then you can sell it and get better.”

She’s also had some big successes, buying a terrace in Erskineville before it boomed in Sydney’s inner west, which has now doubled in value.

“Everyone said I had overpaid for that place and everyone said I was an idiot,” she said.

Dr Adams says she trusted her gut with the Erskineville property and credits that kind of investment success to getting her to the point where she could finally buy where she wanted to live.