Sex and the City fever has swept the nation over the last month; the plot line, the clothes or Sarah Jessica Parker’s supposed feud with Kim Cattrall have taken up masses of column inches and dominated female conversation in coffee shops.

Of course, I haven’t seen the movie myself, but what I do know is that the Channel 4 show, and the women within it, seem to sum up the changing roles and attitudes of single women, reflecting a society of empowered women who are embracing and enjoying their successful single status (although, others might just see it as a television show about self-absorbed women obsessed with shopping and sex)!

Like their New York counterparts, British women are staying single for longer – according to the latest 2005 UK statistics on population trends, the average age for women to marry is 29.5 years, compared with 22.8 in 1976, and the number of women living alone in the 25-34 age category is likely to rise to 40 per cent in 2011.

It’s now the norm for women to want to establish a career and hold down a demanding job before settling down, which not surprisingly, has an impact on the property market as more and more women look for a place of their own, seeing it as the ultimate statement of success.

Many feel empowered by their single status and seek a cool ‘bachelorette’ pad to reflect this, and like their men, their property has to tick all the right boxes.

Typically, women want a spacious apartment close to bars, clubs and restaurants but away from the hustle and bustle – most important is security, so gated developments or video entry are high on the check-list.

Town centres such as Tunbridge Wells and Canterbury fit the bill perfectly, with boutique shops to fulfil the shoe and handbag habit, plenty of trendy bars and restaurants in which to sip a cocktail and push a piece of lettuce round the plate, and of course, great transport links for nights out in London.

So what about when the inevitable happens, and these happy single females find their Mr Big? All of a sudden, the newly-found couple, who both own their properties, face a dilemma.

Does she move in to his home, or he into hers? Do they both sell up and buy something larger together? Do they keep one or both of their properties and enter the lettings market? One thing’s for sure; from my experience, it’s the women who get to make the decision!