Women own more properties than men

Two-thirds of properties in Gauteng owned by women

Looking at non-subsidised properties, there are more female property owners than male property owners, but men own higher valued properties.

Approximately 20% of non-subsidised properties are registered in the names of legal entities, including trusts, companies, local authorities and government bodies. A further 48% are registered to a single individual, 31% to two individuals, and only 1% to more than two individuals. The analysis provided below was therefore limited to properties owned by a single individual.

Comparison of sole property owners in SA by gender

Age of recent buyers: January 2025 to date

Moving from property ownership to current buying trends, the graph above shows that sole female buyers overtook sole male buyers at age 30 and have remained ahead across all subsequent age groups.

Two thirds of women owners were in Gauteng

The country's five largest metros accounted for 60% of sole-women purchases. Activity was concentrated in Gauteng, where the City of Johannesburg, the City of Tshwane and Ekurhuleni together accounted for 66% of the 42 323 purchases by single women across these metros.

Women buyers in 2025 in the five big municipalities

The highest average price paid for properties, though, was in Cape Town at R1.8m, compared to R1.3m in Joburg, R1.2m in eThekwini and Tshwane and R1m in Ekurhuleni.

Benefits of Sectional Title and Estates appeal to women buyers

Women owned proportionately more properties in Estates and Sectional Title developments, suggesting security and lifestyle considerations weighed more on their minds.

For every 100 men owners of Sectional Title properties, there were 130 women owners, and this dropped to 112 women for 100 men in Estates and was almost at parity with Freehold properties at 103:100. The value differences in Sectional Title and Estates were much less than in Freehold.

Single women buyers in 2025 per property type, per age band

Most single women buyers bought property for less than R1m (see graph below), with Sectional Schemes and Freehold making up the most transactions.

Single women buyers in 2025 per price band, per property type

While the number of properties owned by women is significantly higher than the number purchased over the past year, current buying activity shows that women aged 35–55 accounted for the largest share of buyers. This group purchased 34 200 properties, compared with 21 400 bought by women under 35 and 14 100 by women aged 55 and older.

Properties valued at under R1 million were the most popular across all three age groups, followed by properties valued between R1 million and R2 million. Relatively few purchases were made in the over-R2 million segment, reflecting the broader buying patterns observed across the market.

In 2025, approximately 2 000 single women under the age of 35 purchased properties valued above R2 million. This increased to about 5 900 among women aged 35–55, while roughly 3 600 women over the age of 55 bought in this price range.

Single women buyers in 2025 per price band and age band

Proportion of sales bonded

Single women purchasers under 35 accounted for just under half of the sales bonded in 2025, followed by those between 35-55. Single women >55 made up just 11% of bonded transactions.