Today’s leading home, land and business buyers

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.

SIMON BROWN: I’m chatting now with Liza Nolte, new business development manager at AfriGIS. Liza, appreciate the early morning time. An analysis of more than 10 million property transfers dating all the way back to 1995 – a humongous task, I suspect, but fascinating data that you were able to pull out around women, land, home ownership, and business ownership.

To be clear, there are different answers in each sector, but I suppose that’s part of why you went looking into the data to understand what the different influences are.

LIZA NOLTE: Hundred percent. And good morning. I think in this Women’s Month this is really a number worth celebrating.

Since around 2016 South African women have been buying more homes in their own name than men, and they’ve stayed ahead ever since.

Read:
SA women beat men in residential property ownership
Female first-time homebuyers overtake men in SA

SIMON BROWN: That’s a striking number. As you said, I’m thinking when you say they’re buying more homes, that makes sense. Then you say they’re buying more homes than men. This is a striking number in terms of gender identity and gender independence in our economy. It’s huge.

LIZA NOLTE: Hundred percent. I think there are a few likely reasons why women are overtaking men. Now women are earning and are financially independent in a way they weren’t a generation ago. You now have more women in the workforce, more graduating.

Social norms have also shifted. Women are buying on their own rather than waiting.

What we’ve also seen is that men’s-only buying has stayed flat while women’s-only has kept climbing.

Read:
Major minimum wage victory for women workers
Stokvels help growing numbers of SA women build financial security
Millennial women are pouring into jobs

SIMON BROWN: I get that – the men not. That’s homes.

What are we seeing in terms of land? Land is an emotional issue, perhaps particularly in South Africa. Our history of land is complex and tricky. Where do we see women in terms of land ownership?

LIZA NOLTE: That’s an interesting one. I think there are two ways to count ownership. ‘Stock’ is all the property already owned, which is typically built up over generations, still mostly men – which is about 13% right now. ‘Flow’ is what’s being bought right now. Where women are at, that’s 38% and leading.

So women can lead today’s flow while the accumulated stock barely moves, because it takes years for new buying to shift the pile built up over a century.

But both numbers are true. They’re just answering different questions.

So think of it like the 13% is about the past and 38% is about the direction that we’re heading into.

Read:
How can empowering women transform economic growth and business models?
Land reform in South Africa: what the real debate should be about
Ramaphosa: ‘We need to ensure the full; equal participation of women in the economy’

SIMON BROWN: I get your point, because this is generational, absolutely. This is not something that changes quickly. The point that you make, though, is that it is directionally going in that right direction, where we are seeing the number increase.

It’s going to take some time; it might even take a couple of generations. But it’s going in that direction, which is what’s so hugely important.

LIZA NOLTE: Hundred percent. And what we’ve seen is where it’s happening. In Gauteng the most women are buying. That’s the biggest market.

But what we’re also seeing from the data is that the fastest growth is in the smaller rural provinces, such as Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Free State, North West.

The progress is really reaching the places that waited the longest. So we’re seeing real momentum in real communities.

SIMON BROWN: What about business ownership? To be clear, land is important, homes are very important. But businesses – there’s almost something different to it, something more nuanced to it. Are we seeing similar sorts of trends in that space?

LIZA NOLTE: We’re seeing that more women are stepping into business. That’s the momentum. But the honest part is that men are still about twice as likely to own an established business. From the stats we’re seeing 7.9% versus 4.1%. So there’s real progress, but there’s still more to do.

Read:
For women-owned businesses, the funding gap is only half the problem
Women on boards, income inequality, and the sky’s the limit
Business Partners launches R90m fund to close gender financing gap

SIMON BROWN: I get that. And that could also perhaps be the broader commitments on women in terms of household and family, and therefore perhaps risk-taking in its entirety.

LIZA NOLTE: Hundred percent. But we can see that there are definitely big gains being made.

SIMON BROWN: And that’s the key point. Progress, strong progress. I like your point. We need to understand distinctions between perhaps the stock, the flow, the direction it’s going. The direction broadly seems to be in the right direction.

We’ll leave it there. Liza Nolte, new business development manager, AfriGIS, appreciate the early morning time.

#Todays #leading #home #land #business #buyers