Now that we are in the third decade of the new millennia, the contribution of women as home buyers needs immediate recognition by developers. This realisation, coupled with innovative thinking will be the key to boosting real estate demand and women home buyers might just be the consumer to focus on right now!

According to the 2019 profile of home buyers and sellers published by the National Association of Realtors, 11% of total homebuyers in the year consisted of single women. In fact, the statistics also reveal that single women contributed more as first-time home buyers (17%) and repeat homebuyers (18%) compared to single men who stood at 7% and 8% in the respective categories.

These statistics clearly direct towards the future of Indian real estate brands that might find it more profitable if they start focusing on women home buyers.

Why the number of women home buyers is going to increase in the future?

There are a number of factors that are going to contribute to the increase of women home owners in the future. Here’s a look at the few important ones:

⦿ A new generation of women: The current generation of women in the country’s workforce are educated and ambitious. They are slowly climbing the ladder of corporate companies and holding positions that give them the means to own homes in top urban cities. According to statistics published by Catalyst, women now constitute a majority of undergraduate degrees (53%) and Phil degrees (69.6%); and while there are several challenges that women face post higher education, it is still safe to say that more favourable numbers in higher education give women better job opportunities.

⦿ Declining pay gap: Women professionals are rapidly joining the higher paid categories as the wage gap shrinks to 81:100 between men and women. While there is definitely more to be done in this area, let’s not forget that more and more women today are moving forward on the income ladder.

⦿ More benefits to women: There are a number of added home loan benefits for female in India that women home buyers enjoy at the moment. This makes it easier for them to become a home owner early on in their career. From additional subsidies on home ownership under PMAY to lower stamp duty, attractive terms, tax benefits, and higher loan eligibility, becoming a female homeowner comes with its advantages.

With all these factors that encourage women home buyers to own or co-own homes, real estate brands can target the working women in urban cities rather than just males and families.

How real estate brands can encourage women home buyers?

Now that we have established the advantages of being a women home buyer in India, let’s find out how developers can market properties to attract more customers.

⦿ Create a more gender-inclusive marketing strategy: Real estate marketing is always family-oriented, with the male member being the decision maker and buyer. However, with the rapidly changing nature of stereotypes, maybe it is in the best interest of developers to create marketing campaigns that look towards home ownership by women.

⦿ Offer benefits for women homebuyer on select properties: When considering home ownership by single women, it is statistically given that the inclination is towards condos and small apartments. If developers offer exclusive benefits on such properties to women buyers, then winning over women homebuyers will be easier.

⦿ Encourage co-ownership: Co-ownership by both spouses also have similar benefits for homebuyers as individual women owners. If developers also give additional benefits on co-ownership, then more families are going to find it easier to own homes. Also, since home buying is a decision taken equally by both spouses, developers should also encourage site visits together.

⦿ Highlight women as decision-makers: It is time that the narrative around the role of women in home ownership is changed and they are given the status of decision-maker. From forging the ideal customer of brands to selling properties to prospects, small yet significant changes can be made at all steps to ensure a more inclusive and important role for women.

⦿ Focusing on making properties that women want: According to The Hindu, women homebuyers focus on aesthetics, location, safe surroundings, public transport access, and spacious living spaces. Developers could start marketing projects that perform better on these counts to women and increase their chances of sales.

These and many other changes can be used to attract the women home buyers and give them to opportunity to express their financial independence. This will work in favour of the industry as it is statistically proven that more women earners value home owning as compared to men.

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