Women v men
There is a steady change in buying patterns of residential homes, and females are leading the charge
ore women are buying homes than men in SA.
Fact. “Data clearly shows that female buyers have steadily increased since
2016, noticeably overtaking the male and married-couple markets. It is a trend indicative of female buyers becoming more economically empowered,” says Lightstone Property lead analyst Cindy Bezuidenhout.
“Underpinned by a growing awareness of the benefits of property investment, the rise of female buyers is part of the trend towards more single-person households — a global tendency along with the rise of female-headed households,” says Pam Golding Properties senior research analyst Sandra Gordon.
MSINGLE
It may also reflect how many people are delaying marriage or not marrying at all. “In a way it is a normalisation of the market,” says Gordon. “Women account for 50% of the population in SA and so could reasonably be expected to account for half of homes purchased by single people.”
BOND APPROVAL
Gerhard Kotzé, MD of estate agency RealNet, says Lightstone Property’s figures confirm that single female buyers have increased. “But it also shows that the average purchase price paid by these single women was just more than R700,000, compared with about R900,000 paid by single men and R1.1m paid by married couples.”
Currently a household income of about R33,000 qualifies for a R1m bond, assuming that the applicant has discretionary income after paying other expenses to pay a monthly instalment of about R9,900. On the current base home loan interest rate of 10.25%, Kotzé says a woman would only afford a bond of R733,000 on a monthly salary of R24,000.
INCOME INEQUALITY
According to Lightstone Property, although single females lead in terms of volume ownership across SA, single females fall into the lowest average sales price. “One could deduce that the gap between male and female average sale price is attributed to the income inequality between the two groups,” says Bezuidenhout.
Kotzé says chances are single women would buy even more homes and increase the size or price of those they buy, were it not for disparity in SA. “The gender pay gap is having a very clear effect on what women can afford and limiting them to smaller and less expensive properties.”