South African women hold more property ownership than men

Women are increasingly participating in the South African property market, surpassing men in property ownership. Recent data from Lightstone reveals that 38% more women own property compared to men in South Africa.

Women have dominated property ownership since 2022

Hayley Ivins-Downes, managing executive at Lightstone, said women-only buyers accounted for 38% of properties owned. In addition, women co-owned another 33% of properties, as reported by Bizcommunity.

Ten years ago, the situation was very different. Mixed-gender couples buying property outnumbered both men-only and women-only buyers then.

In 2019, single women accounted for less than 30% of property owners, according to Legal Wise.

“In 2016, women-only buyers surpassed men-only buyers and the gap between the two categories has increased steadily since then as the men-only proportion has remained relatively unchanged.”
Hayley Ivins-Downes

Since 2022, women-only buyers moved ahead of mixed-gender cobbuples and now dominate property ownership in the country.

In what price range are women buying property?

Surprisingly, although more women are buying property, they are buying property at lower values than men and mixed-gender couples. According to Ivins-Downes, the gap between prices paid by women-only buyers and mixed-gender couples has widened since 2020.

Most female ownership is in properties in the under-R750 000 price range.

Heads of household across the country

Statistics South Africa published its annual General Household Survey (GHS) for 2023 earlier this year which provides comprehensive data on the living conditions of households across the country.

According to this survey women were the heads of 42,3% of households in South Africa. The majority of female-headed households last year were in rural areas, particularly in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo. Interestingly, female-headed households were the least common in Gauteng of the provinces across the country.