A long, hard road Women’s participation in the property sector, both as professionals and sellers or buyers, has been affected by discriminatory laws and a lack of knowledge about how it works Bonny Fourie WHEN someone is aspiring to reach a goal or make a life change, powerful quotes are often used for motivation. Some of the most well-known are along the lines of “the secret to getting ahead is to get started” or “the best time to start is today”. But for many women in South Africa and around the world, achieving dreams such as property ownership or making career strides in the property sector has not always been under their control. Even if they had the desire and the will to take that first step, in the past a slew of laws prevented them doing so. While this is changing, fortunately, the road has been hard and the journey long. Female property ownership – or lack thereof – has always been an issue, says Gugu Sithole-Ngobese, founder of Women in Planning SA (Wipsa). In addition to there being laws that permits women to own and inherit land, land ownership is an intersectional issue where multiple forms of discrimination, including race, play a role. “It is improving, especially after landmark cases such as that in 2020 when Agnes Sithole successfully challenged an apartheid-era law that denied black women the right to own family property.” Sithole-Ngobese says 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. However, more needs to be done to arm women with the tools to build wealth and obtain appreciating assets, such as property. “There is a general belief that if you provide opportunities, people will come. But information needs to be spread. Many women, especially black women, aren’t aware of the opportunities that exist to help them own properties. “Government subsidies, such as the Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Programme (Flisp) which is open to all South Africans looking to purchase their first home, are available and more needs to be done to disseminate this information.”
Lightstone Property data shows that in 2017, a total of 38.4% of residential property purchases were made by women, although some were jointly with men. Womenonly buyers accounted for 18.35%. Since then, women property ownership has grown: • 2018: 41.6% women purchases – 18.7% women-only purchases. • 2019: 44.2% women purchases – 20.1% women-only purchases. • 2020: 50.25% women purchases – 23.43% women-only purchases. • 2021 so far: 55.25% women purchases – 24.9% womenonly purchases. In the first-half of this year, women made almost 71 000 property purchases, although some of these were joint purchases with men. Gauteng accounted for most of such buys with 29 401. This was followed by Western Cape (17 498) and KwaZulu-Natal (8 758). But women’s participation in the property sector is not just about homeownership. It includes all the professional facets of the built environment sector, as well as female participation at board level of the listed property sector.
