Women today are more empowered, celebrated and financially independent than in the past, and data reveals that female buyers of property have been steadily increasing.
It was not so long ago that women did not have equal rights, nor were they allowed any ownership of property or other entities. Luckily, the picture is much different and today women are empowered and celebrated. Lightstone, the trusted provider of comprehensive data and analytics for the property and automotive market, investigates women ownership in the automotive and property market.
Women and Property Buying
Cindy Bezuidenhout, Lead Analyst at Lightstone Property explains that the data clearly shows that female buyers have been steadily increasing since 2016, noticeably overtaking the male and married couple markets. According to Bezuidenhout this trend could be indicative of female buyers becoming more economically empowered.
Graph indicates increased purchasing behaviour by single female buyers
All four of the main provinces (Gauteng, Western Cape, KwaZulu Natal and Eastern Cape), have experienced natural growth in property prices over the last five years. The Western Cape has seen a steady climb in average sale price in the last five years. “What is interesting about average sale price amongst female buyers is that it has experienced growth in Gauteng and Western Cape but the picture is a bit more sporadic for the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal where average volume of sales and the average sale price dropped in 2017,” says Bezuidenhout.
Although single females lead in terms of volume ownership across South Africa, it is evident that single females fall into the lowest average sales price and according to Bezuidenhout, one could deduct that the gap between male and female average sale price is attributed to the income inequality between the two groups.
Across South Africa married couples purchase properties with the highest value. Male and female buyers pay less with the gap between single female and males increasing over the last three years.
In a further reference to single females buying patterns, Lightstone looks at sales by buyers in different value bands since 2013. Over 130 000 female buyers purchase in the R 250 000 and under values band. This quantity is 20% higher than males in the same values band. This value band is also the most popular across all purchasing types. “In a comparison between single males and female purchases over the last five years, males have very similar frequency of purchases across the value bands from R250 000 and upwards, but slightly exceed the volume of single female purchases in the above R700 000 value bands. It is heartening to see that females are becoming more active in these higher value property sales”
Value bands for different property buyer types
