I've touched on the topic of what women want when it comes to property previously, and when I came across a survey dedicated to exactly that I thought maybe I would look at the subject again. The survey I refer to was conducted by a company called Splash Consulting Group, who through an online poll got the opinions and thoughts of 1200 women across the country on the property industry, including their perceptions of the industry, trends and opportunities.
According to Splash's findings, it seems that one of the major reasons that women are becoming an increasingly active part of the real estate market is because they view property as one of their preferred investment options. Investing in property is where Aussie women apparently feel the most confident and comfortable – so much so that 47 per cent of the ladies surveyed believed that property will deliver them the highest returns, and 38 per cent of the women polled felt property was their safest option.
What was also interesting in the results of this survey is what women look for in a property. I have personally experienced the failings of a property to meet general female expectations, when many years ago I was involved with the selling of luxury apartments. Men loved them, and their wives announced they were completely unsuitable due to the lack of a linen cupboard. That experience has stuck with me for years and it highlights an important point - one thing is for sure when it comes to women and real estate – they know what they want.
Although linen cupboards failed to rate a mention in the Splash survey results, the top 5 considerations for purchase that they uncovered are also interesting to a real estate agent. They were, in order of importance:
number of bedrooms
facilities in the area (shops, schools, restaurants etc)• overall size of the property
high potential for increasing property prices / return on investment
familiarity with a suburb or area
Whilst I don't think any of the above are actually unexpected, what I did find surprising in the results was that few women felt the property industry caters to their needs – real estate agents everywhere take note!
This is a property savvy group, and almost half of this survey (49 per cent) had in bought their first property at the age of 25 or younger. I always knew the female population was a force to be reckoned with, and this proves I was right!