Owning my own four-bedroom cottage is a man repellent. I can’t believe my dates’ irritated and jealous reactions – and my friends are experiencing the same pettiness: KATIE GLASS

I feel I was ashamed to admit it when I first bought it In my four-bedroom cottage in Somerset, I had this dream that I would meet the love of my life and we would fill the house with children. Instead, I came across a group of tenants.

After splitting from my fiancee, I bought my rural, almost off-grid home just outside Frome. We often talked together about selling my cramped studio flat in London and moving to a farmhouse in rural North Wales, where I grew up.

So when I left him, I bought my own cabin, thinking he would come and find me there. When it didn’t happen, I started dating again.

Of course, it was a miracle that I, a 45-year-old millennial, could afford to buy it in the first place; Thanks to some money from my family, selling my flat in London and making enough to get a good mortgage. For most people, getting on the property ladder is almost impossible.

So my friends were initially protective of the risk of men becoming gold diggers. ‘You don’t want a man who is only after your house,’ they would joke.

Some were more positive, suggesting that my beautiful, detached house was on a third of an acre! – can find me a husband.

Boy, they couldn’t have been more wrong. I have seen that, at best, men are completely indifferent to the fact that I have a home, and at worst, it plays a repulsive role for a man.

I met a nice lawyer who said he had his own house in a nearby village. We went for a few drinks, the conversation flowed, the attraction seemed harmonious.

But things quickly went south on our second date, when he picked me up for dinner at a local bar. “My house—a fat cabin but no country pile—was bigger than he expected,” he said. He stated how much I needed to earn to live here. He stopped trying to discover who I was and instead started making assumptions: I must come from a privileged background; I must be very independent; I usually should never date men from his background.

This was a crazy conversation for me because he was totally middle class. But apparently I had hurt his pride. He didn’t offer to pay for dinner, and I was relieved to never hear from him again.

Another guy I dated briefly—he was in his 40s but still lived with his parents—showed his anger with endless digs about what a poor job I did on the renovation and how he would have solved the problem differently.

The defense of these men was unorthodox. My dates, uninvited, would start giving a full rundown of their own financial situations and intentions to get a mortgage, while aggressively listing reasons why they hadn’t yet—even though I hadn’t asked and didn’t care.

Friends report similar experiences. ‘My ex-boyfriend was so jealous of my house that he was determined to buy a house of exactly the same value,’ one said. ‘He started sending me Rightmove links to properties he thought would impress me. Instead I thought he was delusional because I knew he couldn’t afford it. He was always making bad remarks about how “not everyone can buy a house and fix it up”.’

He sold his cramped studio flat in London and moved to a charming four-bed farmhouse in the North Wales countryside.

One of Katie’s dates told her that her property, at one-third of an acre, was larger than she expected. Another made snide comments about how he would have handled the renovation differently

Another friend admits: ‘Even if they like you, it pushes them away.’ Her ex-husband was so depressed that he held the title to the house during their marriage, ‘wasn’t working and was constantly angry at me’.

All this comes as a surprise to me. Owning property isn’t something I’m looking for, but if I were dating a guy who had a decent-sized house, I’d see that as a bonus. I have a boyfriend I don’t like at all, until one evening, while drinking in the garden of his magnificent Georgian pile, I found myself daydreaming about marriage. I also dated a lord whose magnificent house impressed me far more than his title.

But men don’t seem to find women’s homes all that intoxicating. Perhaps this is because women’s interest in equality stems from the era when we married because our financial and domestic security depended on it. Until 50 years ago, lenders rejected mortgages from single women. Things changed after the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, which prohibited discriminating against a person because of their gender or marital status.

More women than ever are applying for mortgages on their own. Skipton Building Society has recorded up to 11.5 per cent more lone female applicants than lone male applicants in recent years, particularly among young women in their 20s and 30s.

One guy I dated stands out as an exception. When she first came to my cottage she grew cold and compared herself to Elizabeth Bennet who had come to Pemberley. To be honest, this made me angry.

I didn’t really feel discouraged. Indeed, I have found the men who hated my house to be a blessing; I lived alone among peace and roses.

But I wonder if the boys won’t like the girly pink huts with beams to hit their heads on? Anyway, I’m planning on swapping it for a penthouse or a one-bedroom garden flat in London soon because I’m bored of living in the country. Maybe then they’ll come running.