Women becoming major force in China’s property market

More Chinese women are entering China’s property market, with the proportion of women homebuyers having increased by nearly 18% over the past four years, reports South China Morning Post.

According to a recent analysis from Ke.com, a property listing website, although property market is still dominated by men, there’s an increasing number of single women who are new buyers year on year. The company analyzed 67,724 transactions on its platform in 2018 and found that 47.9 per cent of the buyers were women. In 2014, women accounted for about 30 per cent of transactions on the platform.

As Beijing Youth Daily reported, the situation has changed a lot in recent years. Wives tend to give more suggestions and advice when it comes to married couples buying houses. Some women even play leading roles in choosing houses, while men seem to take the backseat, according to a real estate salesman in Beijing.

Based on a report released by two other real estate websites, 65.2% of the women had decisive effects in buying home, 28.4% offered suggestions, but only 6.4% were ignored.

“Women are always an influential force in our industry,” said Liu Ce, the head of research center at Kaisa Group.

Liu added the appearance of a home, including the inner decor and landscaping matters more for female buyers, while other factors such as the location and price carry less weight.

In recognition of the growing role of women as homebuyers, developers have placed more emphasis on the presentation of show houses, including elements such as interior finishing.

Meanwhile, more women are opting to purchase a home before marriage. Among women who plan to buy homes, 52.5% of them have white-collar jobs. A recent research also shows that 74.2% of the buyers didn’t get support from their marriage partners, 45.2% accepted assistance from parents, and 29% of them bought houses relying on themselves.

Many unmarried women think home ownership helps to bolster a sense of belonging and security in major cities such as Beijing. They think buying houses is for both investment purposes as well as a way to improve their quality of life. They also believe that home ownership could improve their appeal in finding a marriage partner.

According to statistics, the percentage of unmarried women buyers in first-tier cities is higher than that in second-tier cities.