Women making a mark in property market

If you are among the rising number of women buying property for sale in the East Rand, or other parts of South Africa, then you will be happy to know that the market is no longer a male-dominated space.

It has been a tough road when it comes to equal rights for women not only in this country, but around the world. At one point, women were not permitted to have ownership of property or other entities.

This has changed drastically though, and the property market has showcased just how women have started empowering themselves. Lightstone, which provides trusted data in the property and automotive market, has shown that the amount of female buyers has soared since 2016. So much so, that they have overtaken the spend by male buyers and married couples. This is some significant data and the lead analyst at Lightstone Property, Cindy Bezuidenhout, feels that this showcases the fact that women are becoming more economically empowered.

Breaking the data down by province, the Gauteng market shows the most significant increase, with single females dominating , while they are also at the top by a smaller margin in the Eastern Cape.

In both the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, married couples are at the top of the list, with single females moving up to second.

Despite this being a positive move, there is still a lot of work to be done when it comes to income equality. This is visible when looking at the average sales prices, as this is where female buyers fall into the lowest bracket. According to Bezuidenhout, this could be a clear indication of the difference between male and female income in the workplace.

Assessing all the data means that change is on the cards though, and this trend is expected to continue as women become more empowered in all aspects of daily life.