In South Africa, women are increasingly asserting their financial independence and making significant strides in both homeownership and vehicle ownership. This trend reflects a broader socio-economic shift, with women steadily growing their presence as property and car owners (see Toyota Keeps Going Right for SA Women).
Women's Month in August highlights women's progress across many sectors. While property ownership has historically been male-dominated, the data now shows that women are increasingly becoming homeowners and property investors – and now outnumber men.
The proportion of homes owned by women as sole buyers – as opposed to men or mixed couple buyers – has increased from 30% in 2014 to 39% in 2025, while mixed couple ownership declined from 39% to 30%. It’s important to note that “single female buyers” refers to women who are the sole registered owners of the property, regardless of their marital or relationship status.
As a result, properties owned solely by women or jointly by women and men account for 69% of all ownership, while properties owned solely by men remain static at 31%.
Property ownership over time 2014-2025
Of the approximately 200 000 residential property transactions by natural persons in the past 12 months, 140 000 were made by sole buyers, and 75 000 of those were by a sole woman buyer. An additional 60 000 transactions involved a woman purchasing jointly with a male partner.
The rise of women-only buyers between July 2024 and June 2025 is due to relatively high levels of low value transfers, as the graph below demonstrates.
Sole women buyers significantly outnumbered sole men buyers in the under R250 000 price band. Other price bands where sole women buyers lead included the R250k–R500k, R500k–R750k and R750k–R1 million categories.
In total, 26% of transfers to women as exclusive owners were subsidised (RDP, BNG, or other government-funded housing), compared to 21% for sole men buyers and 17% for joint male/female buyers.
Dominance: lower value purchases: July 2024 – June 2025
Property choices (excluding subsidised properties)
If owners of subsidised properties are excluded, single women buyers favoured secure living, with 12% opting for Estate Freehold, 4% going for Estate Sectional Schemes and 37% buying Sectional Scheme properties. Just over 47% of single women buyers bought Freehold properties.
On average, women buyers paid nearly R2.2 million for Estate Freehold properties and slightly over R1.5 million for Estate Sectional Scheme properties.
As the graph shows, women buyers spent less on average than men buyers (again, excluding subsidised properties) in each of the categories.
Average purchase price
Percentage of single women buyers by age
The proportion of sole women buyers increases with age. At 30, 50% of buyers were women, and this reaches 73% at 74 years of age with a preference for sectional title properties.
**This analysis includes transactions by natural persons only: sole female buyers, sole male buyers, or joint male/female buyers. While not all single female buyers are unmarried, 82% were unmarried at the time of purchase; similarly, 78% of “single male buyers” were unmarried. Transactions involving other combinations (eg multiple individuals, two women, two men, or entities such as companies) were excluded due to their low volume and limited statistical significance.
