The future of property is female

Sixty per cent of new properties in South Africa were purchased either by women alone or in partnership last year.

This was revealed as part of data collected for a Lightstone Property survey and represents a shift towards women as the dominant force in the property market.

Aside from the 60% total, women-only purchases rose from 18% in 2016 to 22% in 2022.

In conjunction with Rainmaker Marketing, five female industry leaders recently sat down for a webinar to discuss the changing marketplace and to give advice to the next generation.

“Women are leading the market and there’s an exciting new trend of empowered, decisive women within property ownership,” said director of sales and marketing at Devmco Realty, Pamela Naidu.

She said she had noticed more young single women getting into the market and being bolder with their choices earlier in their ownership journey.

“I think it’s not just the property sector but in any sector really. The inclusion and rise of women certainly has an impact on any organisation,” said chief investment officer at Spear REIT, Kim Pfaff-Karg.

“Women tend to think differently and have a special skillset that I believe complements our male counterparts.”

Her property advice was to focus on understanding the lifecycle of an asset and to be strategic about when to sell it.

Kgaogelo Mamobolo of Emerging African Property Holdings emphasised the need for personal engagement in the market.

“You can read a number of sources for information but you’ve got to be speaking to people. I’m discovering a lot of women who have identified a piece of land, done all the legwork and then found themselves stuck,” said Mamobolo.

“That’s when they need to come to people like us with experience to get past that blockage.”

CEO and founder of Ancora Retail, Marianka Victor, echoed the sentiment and spoke of her journey when starting her business.

“I think that as women, we often feel a little bit threatened to ask for advice because we want to come across like we’re on top of things,” she said.

“But one of the biggest lessons I learned in my career so far is that there’s always someone that knows what you don’t know. You just need to find them.”

She also spoke about the need for consistency if you want to realise an idea.

“Innovation involves holding onto that bigger picture vision and taking small steps each day to work towards it,” she said.

Closing out the discussion, investor relations executive at Liberty Two Degrees, Sumenthree Moodley, said it was important to remember that everyone moves at their own pace and not to become disheartened.

“It is different for each person because everyone has their own risk profile and time horizon. It’s about start; start somewhere, start small. Even if you have R100 or R1 000 a month to invest, start somewhere,” she said.

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