Risk response: When single women dominate the first-time buyer market in a country with chronic
unemployment and rising living costs it tells us that traditional safety nets have failed. Photo: Freepik/AI
More than half South Africa’s first-time homebuyers are single women.
I wouldn’t necessarily call this a lifestyle trend or a feminist victory lap. And it is definitely not a threat to men, despite what some corners of the internet would have you believe.
I would like you to try looking at the data through a rational lens and see this as a response to risk.
According to Absa data, more than 50% of its first-time homebuyers are single women.
Standard Bank reports that women have made up 70% of its home loan clients over the past decade.
Lightstone has also confirmed that single women are purchasing more homes than single men and even couples.
Yet, when a prominent influencer, Koshiek Karan, recently posted a thread on X about women dominating the first-time buyer market, the response was fascinating.
The replies were angry and defensive, with some accusing women of taking men’s jobs.
Others framed men as the new victims of the economy.
But when we go back to the data, we see that women experience higher unemployment than men across every education bracket in South Africa. That is according to Statistics South Africa. From matric to postgraduate degrees, women are more likely to be unemployed, underpaid or stuck in precarious work.
If women are not winning in the economy, what are they doing?
They are hedging against it.
For many women, buying a home is not about status. It is about control over their own lives and protection rather than prestige.
Control over escalating rentals and landlords who can terminate leases with little warning.
Creating a security net for the fear of having nowhere to go if a relationship ends, a job disappears or a household income collapses.
Hannah van Deventer, the director at Phoenix Bonds, says the rise of single women entering the property market has become one of the most talked-about shifts in the home finance industry.
“This is a hot topic across our sector,” she explains. “Single women are increasingly among the largest segments of first-time homebuyers. They’re more financially independent and they’re choosing to enter the property market earlier.”
She adds that what stands out is how intentional the buyers are.
“When we assist with an application, their credit scores are strong, employment is stable and they approach property with a clear long-term mindset. I don’t think this is just a passing trend. It’s a structural shift and lenders are supporting it.”
Van Deventer notes that this momentum is not limited to high earners.
“Even women who aren’t earning a huge salary are building property portfolios over time,” she says.
“They buy their first home, earn rental income, wait six months and then purchase the next small property. And with many now achieving 105% home loans, the barriers to entry have been removed.
“In many cases, these women can own a home with simply a payslip, an employment contract and a decent credit score.”
Property has become a form of personal infrastructure for women in South Africa.
I spoke to Paul Stevens, the CEO of Just Property, where roughly 60% of the business sits in rental management. That position gives the group a front-row seat to how South Africans live before they buy.
“What we see in the rental market long before it shows up in bond statistics is that women are far more focused on long-term housing security,” Stevens says.
“Many of our female tenants are already thinking two or three steps ahead. They are asking how long they can stay, what happens if rentals escalate and what owning would look like compared to renting indefinitely.”
He explains that when the tenants do transition into first-time buyers, the mindset carries through.
“These buyers come into the sales market extremely prepared. They buy earlier, they buy within their means and they are realistic about what they can sustain over time.
“It is not emotional purchasing. It is careful, informed decision-making shaped by years of navigating the rental market.”
Stevens says affordability stress-testing is a defining feature of this segment.
“They want to know what happens if interest rates rise, if their income changes or if they need to support family members. They are a financially disciplined buyer group in the market. They are not planning for best-case outcomes. They are planning for durability.”
The uncomfortable truth is that many men are waiting for a version of economic stability that no longer exists. Perhaps in the same way that young women marrying men in the 1950s for financial security is no longer a trend either.
Stable employment, predictable career progression and household formation before home ownership used to be the norm but it’s not like that anymore.
The data tells us that women are buying alone and the houses/apartments they buy are smaller. They are buying with fewer emotional assumptions attached to the asset.
Rather than a gender war, this is probably more of an economic warning. Framing this shift as a women-versus-men issue misses the point.
When single women dominate the first-time buyer market in a country with chronic unemployment, low wage growth and rising living costs it tells us something that traditional safety nets have failed.
Marriage is no longer an economic guarantee. Employment is no longer guaranteed or stable.
Renting offers no long-term security or leverage when looking at wealth creation. The government is not providing affordable, reliable housing at scale fast enough to solve the housing crisis.
Therefore, individuals are compelled to step in where systems have stepped back.
Property is important for wealth creation but it has become less about that and more about dignity. Perhaps people want certainty in at least one part of their lives.
I am not sure if this data should make us proud. Are single women leading the first-time buyer market, not because they are thriving but because they are planning
for collapse?
Is property ownership in this segment shifting from aspiration to self-preservation?
Building resilience privately (one bond application at a time) and anchoring yourself in a country where too many systems feel unreliable?
Are women using it as a personal insurance policy against personal and economic failure?
Regardless of gender, we should be concerned.
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