Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Women no longer the underdog
TODAY, women – either alone or in partnership with other men or women – own more than half the residential property stock registered in South Africa, according to recent stats from Lightstone.
The changing ownership patterns reflect the growing participation of women in the economy, and Lightstone data suggests that women-only buyers are edging towards buying more expensive properties.
By the end of last month, women, individually or in partnership, accounted for 57% (3 896 595) of the total volume of properties in the market (6 868 778), while this accounted for 54% (R3.4 billion) of the total value (R6.4bn) of residential properties registered at the Deeds Office.
And the percentage of properties purchased by women only is steadily increasing, from 16% in 2018 to 21% last year, with the number up another percent for the seven months to end July this year, according to Lightstone.
The changes are thanks, in part, to the work done to break down several archaic laws that sought to keep women out of property.
It’s no secret that access to land and property is essential in securing financial freedom for women, as well as giving them individual agency and autonomy, says the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), which has brought three cases to court to secure the rights of disadvantaged women.
“The potential of women to own and control land fosters their power of self-determination, eliminates dependence, and enables them to participate meaningfully in decision-making structures,” says the LRC.
Esteani Marx, from Lightstone, agrees. “One of the most noteworthy aspects of liberation that celebrates female empowerment is that women can own assets – independently.
“The average price women are buying their homes for is just shy of R800 000 – the highest it’s been in the past five years,” says Marx.
“Another positive finding from our data is the slight average increase in properties owned by single females within the R1.5 million and up price
bracket – especially in a depressed economic environment.”
Another big positive is the growth in single females buying property in the Eastern Cape, which is “encouraging”.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic downturn, there was an increase in the number of young, black women driving the property market, says Gugu SitholeNgobese,
the founder of Women in Planning SA. Female property ownership – or lack thereof – has always been an issue, she says.
In the past, a slew of laws and customs hindered women from making strides in the property world and prevented them from owning or inheriting land – laws and customs that sought to give women the status of children.
The LRC agrees that legal systems have “often been biased against women, ensuring that their access to property was impeded”.
The LRC reiterates: “Land ownership and property rights are integrally connected to the power of self-determination and this is particularly important for a class of persons historically oppressed by society and the law – elderly black women.”
Two years ago, a landmark ruling in the Durban High Court, saw Agnes Sithole, then 72, score a victory providing her with a share of her husband’s estate. It also sought to protect about 400 000 black elderly women in South Africa whose rights were affected by the discriminatory law dating from the apartheid era under which black women married before 1988 were denied ownership of family property, as all matrimonial assets belonged to the husband.
The LRC represented Sithole and the Commission for Gender Equality in the case.
Sithole’s case is well known, and will go down in history books as a pivotal moment in women’s rights to land and property ownership.
Facing impoverishment and possible homelessness when her marriage ended, Sithole challenged the discriminatory law. The new ruling stipulates that all customary marriages are to be declared in community of property, a marital property law that treats the property of either spouse as joint property, regardless of who paid for it.
Sithole’s case plus others, including that of Elizabeth Gumede and Thokozani Maphumulo, also fought by the LRC, “illustrate the persistence of patriarchy, the vulnerability of women during and upon termination of a customary marriage and the shortcomings of legislation enacted to protect such women”.
“The court cases and the Recognition of Customary Marriages Amendment Act 1 of 2021 recently passed by Parliament reverses this discrimination.”
There are plans to amend the act further and regulate the proprietary consequences of customary marriages entered into before the act came into effect.
“The affected women belong to a generation of black women who were born, raised and married under apartheid, during a time when laws actively prevented their access to freedom of movement, education, and the right to hold property.”
Even before Sithole’s case South African women, particularly single women, had started to rival single men in homeownership.
Women are also emerging as the primary home loan applicant in many instances because they often are the higher earner in the household.
Statistics show the number of women purchasing homes in their own right is increasing at a faster rate than that of men, so more single women own properties than single men.
However, women still need to be armed with the tools to build wealth and obtain appreciating assets, such as property, says Sithole-Ngobese.