Female buyers on the rise in Gauteng
Lightstone Property Group has recently revealed that female home buyers in Gauteng are on the rise. With growing economic opportunities, it is hoped the numbers will continue to grow.
Since 2013, Lightstone Property Group has seen a steady increase in the number of women homeowners in Gauteng. In fact, the data shows that they are currently the majority of buyers in the province, overtaking both male and couple buyers. One reason for this could be the increase in the earning potential for females across the country.
While the amount of female buyers has increased, Cindy Bezuidenhout, lead analyst at Lightstone Property reveals that while more females are buying property, they are purchasing property on the lower end of the price scale. “One could deduct that the gap between male and female average sale price [can be] attributed to the income inequality between the two groups” says Bezuidenhout.
In 2013, around 40,000 sales were recorded at an average price of R600,000. This continued to rise to 50,000 sales in 2016 at an average price of R800,000 and then started to dip back down in 2018 to 40,000 recorded sales at an average of R600,000. While the number has dipped, single females are still the largest group of buyers in the province.
Sales may rise and fall during different times, but Lightstone predict female buying power to continue to increase: “As transformation and the conversation of women in leadership take exponential strides within government and the private sector‚ women will become more economically empowered and the view of female ownership will continue to show more growth in all key metrics in the next several years”.
Females may be on the lower end of the property market in Gauteng, but their buying power is expected to increase year on year. If you’re on the hunt for your first property in Gauteng, let Private Property guide you through the buying your first home in 2019.
