Track2Realty Pan-India Survey
It is single women and not the married ones who are the real demand drivers of the housing market in India. Contrary to the general perception that marriage is a catalyst for women to look up to house ownership, it is the single women across the cities of India that are more attracted to the property. The choices of single women are as much goaded by the safety of their own roof over head as with the investment horizon.
Nearly 7 out of 10 single women, as many as 68%, have property buying in mind ever since they became financially independent. This is in contrast to the 56% married women who think property should be their first priority in life. Even the working married women are not as property focused as the single women and only 60% married working women want a house of their own.
What women want might be extremely difficult to comprehend otherwise, but what women want in the housing market has definitely been decoded with a qualitative survey. Track2Realty Survey aimed at exploring the investment choice of single and married women in the housing market. The aim has also been to explore the difference in property buying preferences of single women vis-à-vis married women.
In a pan-India survey of 500 women across the SEC A+; A; and B+, it was noticed that the traditional mindset that the woman influences the family decision to buy a house is fast changing with their education and financial independence. While the majority of married women, 78% to be precise, feel a house is a means of social security, it is a prudent investment choice for the majority of single women, as many as 84%. It is hence logical for more than half of these single women, as many as 54%, to delay the marriage and focus on property acquisition.
“For me a home purchase was the first financial & life goal ever since I got into the job. It works both ways for me – a sound investment decision as well as social security. But if you ask me honestly, in a city like Bengaluru with ever increasing house cost and rent, it is more of a financial decision. It is otherwise a safe city. But yes, there are issues in getting a house on rent for a single woman,” says Bhavya Mishra, an IT professional.
What comes out as a new trend of personal finance is the fact that single women far outnumber married ones when it comes to buying an additional home for investment. While only half the married women, 52% of them, would be tempted to buy a second home for investment, the number of single women with intent to buy the second home for investment is as high as 70%.
The changing preferences are also being noticed with respect to their overall investment options. Gold, a traditional asset class that women hold, is not as popular among the single women, and only 46% want to possess the precious yellow metal. In contrast to this, more than 8 out of 10 married women, 82%, want to possess jewellery, as a safe means of investment.
“My mother had gifted me some gold with the intention of me keeping it for my marriage. I told her marriage is not in my mind for the next few years. And hence I got it liquidated to make a corpus of down payment for my property in Noida. I mean why to hold an asset class that you can’t use. I have some gold still left and hopefully that will help me in my next property purchase,” maintains Deepika Agnihotri, a banking professional in Noida.
When it comes to investment in real estate stocks, the preferences of single women far outnumber the married ones. Only 12% married women have some exposure with the real estate stocks, as against more than double the number, 26% to be precise, of single women.
Survey Highlights:
68% single women have property buying in her mind ever since they became financially independent
56% married women think property should be their first priority in life
60% working married women want a house of her own as priority
House is social security for 78% married and investment choice for 84% married women
54% single women ready to delay the marriage and focus on property acquisition
52% married women and 70% single women want a second house for investment
Gold as an asset class is preferred by 46% single and 82% married women
26% Single and 12% married women have exposure to realty stocks
90% married and 76% women are location specific
74% single and 54% married women go for thorough due diligence and market research
70% single and 58% married women negotiate better in the housing market
66% single women and only 30% married ones have faced mortgage challenges
Another stereotype thought process that the single women are demolishing today is with their choice of location. While the majority of married women, as many as 90%, prefer to buy a house in the vicinity of the workplace and necessary social infrastructure for family, more single women are location agnostic. Only 76% of them are fixated with the idea of neighbourhood property, and the rest are willing to travel a bit far if it makes a better investment choice.
Also Read: https://www.track2realty.track2media.com/more-women-to-defer-marriage-for-property/
It is hence no surprise that the single women have more market depth & knowledge of the housing market than the married ones. 74% single women maintain they did a dipstick of the housing market and visited multiple properties before making a final purchase commitment. This is in contrast to 54% married women whose preferences were shortlisted online and did not explore the market further.
What this knowledge quotient leads to is lesser emotional & impulsive buying behavior, leading to better negotiation power. No less than 70% single women negotiated & discounted property price, as against the 58% married women whose location fixation didn’t give enough room to negotiate.
“It is easier to deal with a family and/or married woman in the property market than a single woman. A single woman as a home buyer is someone who has the habit of negotiating too much. Over and above that, they always drop the names of competing projects that they have already visited and often have the competitive offers from there. This set of informed buyers leaves little room for us to make better profits and brokerage,” says Sudesh Madaan, a broker in Gurgaon.
Despite being the critical demand driver, the single women complain that they have to face more mortgage challenges, with more than two thirds, 66% to be precise, have faced lenders getting suspicious with single woman as a home buyer. Not even one third, 30%, married women weathered any such perception issue on part of the lender.
Case Study: When Mohini Gupta, a single woman, wanted to defer her marriage to buy a house her friends & relatives could not see any method in the madness. She was nevertheless determined and had moved into her own house in January 2020, two months ahead of the pandemic. Post Covid, the same set of people who criticized her are appreciating her for the wisdom. At a time when in many of the housing societies across Mumbai are forcing stricter rules for the tenants, including no entry for any relatives, she has a house of own where she brought her parents from Ghaziabad.
Mohini is not the only single woman in having been criticized for something that is proving to be a savior in today’s Covid-hit world. The feedback shared by the single women tells it all:
Single women find it comforting to keep the parents and other family members as emotional support in their own apartment
Work From Home is far easier from one’s own apartment than a girls’ hostel or shared accommodation
House is proving to be not just an asset but also a better social security in case of any emergency
Traditional investment with gold is of no use in locked in environment but a house is an asset that could be used for comfortable living
Ravi Sinha
@ravitrack2media
Track2Realty is an independent media group managed by a consortium of journalists. Starting as the first e-newspaper in the Indian real estate sector in 2011, the group has today evolved as a think-tank on the sector with specialized research reports and rating & ranking. We are editorially independent and free from commercial bias and/or influenced by investors or shareholders. Our editorial team has no clash of interest in practicing high quality journalism that is free, frank & fearless.
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