British writer Woolf once said that if a woman wants to write, she must first have money and a room of her own.
For a century, the phrase is still widely used today because it transcends traditional gender shackles.
You may only need a pen to start writing, but the rising power of women to buy houses has become a trend of the times that cannot be ignored.
The latest data released by the Shell Research Institute shows that in the transaction data of Shell 38 cities in 2021, the proportion of female consumers will reach 48.65%, which is 3.11 percentage points higher than that of 45.54% five years ago.
Shenzhen girls have realized the characteristics of "making money". In 2021, the proportion of female home buyers in Shenzhen will reach 54.76%, an increase of 4.18 percentage points compared with 2018, and the growth rate is higher than that of other first-tier cities.
Not only that, Shenzhen women's performance in terms of bargaining rate and transaction cycle is also more straightforward and more generous than that of male home buyers.
Women's awareness of buying a house is increasing year by year, which is not only affected by factors such as their independence consciousness and income level, but also closely related to the changing role of marriage in modern society.
Shell research data shows that 74.6% of the interviewed women believe that they need to have a house of their own before marriage, and the younger the women, the stronger this idea.
"House is more secure than marriage", "have a shelter for yourself", "more confidence in family and marriage" are becoming the realistic driving force for women to buy a house in the new era.
The rise of women's home buying power
In recent years, with the continuous improvement of women's consumption power, the phenomenon of "she economy" has become more and more prominent in the field of housing consumption.
Consulting firm Accenture once released data that China has nearly 400 million female consumers between the ages of 20 and 60, who control up to 10 trillion yuan in consumer spending each year, enough to constitute the world's third largest consumer market.
Such spending power is also leading China's residential consumption habits and trends, bringing new opportunities in the era.
On March 7, the Shell Research Institute released a report saying that from the housing transaction data in recent years, women are becoming "half the sky" in the field of residential consumption.
In 2021, the transaction data of Shell 38 cities shows that the proportion of female consumers will reach 48.65%, which is 3.11 percentage points higher than that of 45.54% in 2017.
Whether it is first-tier cities or new first-tier and lower-tier cities, the proportion of female home buyers is increasing.
In 2021, the proportion of female buyers of first-tier, new first-tier and lower-tier housing buyers will be 49.33%, 49.33% and 48.32%, respectively, an increase of 3.48 percentage points, 3.96 percentage points and 3.55 percentage points compared with 2018.
Among the first-tier cities, Shenzhen will account for the highest proportion of female home buyers in 2021, reaching 54.76%.
Among the new first-tier cities, the proportion of female home buyers in Dongguan, Hangzhou, and Shenyang has grown rapidly, reaching 51.68%, 44.27%, and 45.75% in 2021, up 11.37, 9.98, and 8.66 percentage points from 2018.
Wang Wei is preparing to join the army of buying houses in Shenzhen.
As a Shaanxi girl working in Shenzhen, she hesitated for a long time about buying a house. She could either choose her hometown without down payment and loan repayment pressure, or continue working for a few years to save a Shenzhen down payment.
Friends around her have persuaded her that unless she wants to stay in her hometown, she should ask her parents to help her buy a house in Shenzhen.
Wang Wei's experience is not an exception.
From Shenzhen to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the high housing prices in first-tier cities have made it impossible for many people to buy a house independently. Relying on their parents to finance the down payment and co-financing with the other half has become the choice of most people.
Data from the Shell Research Institute also shows that only 20% of the female respondents who have purchased a house said that the house was purchased independently.
There are four main ways for women to achieve “freedom of housing”: housing acquisition under the intergenerational wealth transfer of the family, housing acquisition through marriage, housing acquisition caused by changes in marital status, and housing purchase alone, of which “parental support” accounted for 35.72%.
Those who still have the burden of down payment even if they rely on their parents to contribute, some choose to go back to their hometown to buy a house.
Zhang Jing, born in the 1980s, has been working in Beijing for 7 years. When it comes to buying a house, she feels she has made a detour, but she has no choice.
In Beijing, Zhang Jing and her boyfriend are just above the average income line. They have no pressure to rent a whole house, but it is even more difficult to buy a house.
What made her think about buying a house was the moment she considered fertility issues.
In Beijing, in addition to high housing prices, children's schooling and education would be faced with a lot of problems, so Zhang Jing and her boyfriend decided to buy a suite in their hometown first to be prepared.
In 2017, the craziest housing price in Hebei, they "got into the car" in the center of their home county.
However, the house in the hometown cannot solve the core problem.
If Zhang Jing and her boyfriend don't change jobs, they can only let their parents take the baby in their hometown in the future, which is not an ideal state.
This embarrassing state of being caught in the middle made her wonder whether her decision to buy a house was right or wrong.
The empty house has not yet welcomed the owner's occupancy.
Different from the different ways of buying a house in first-tier cities, in low-energy cities such as third- and fourth-tier cities, the pressure on women to buy a house is relatively small.
According to the data from the Shell Research Institute, the higher the level of the city, the higher the average housing consumption expenditure of women.
In first-tier, new first-tier and second-tier cities and below, the average total price of women buying a house is 4.71 million yuan, 1.71 million yuan and 1.46 million yuan respectively.
Is the house more secure than marriage?
The rising power of women to buy houses is inseparable from their rapid development in the workplace and income.
According to the research report of the Shell Research Institute, although there is still a gap between the income levels of men and women, a good education level and good career development have become the pursuit of many modern women.
From a long-term perspective, as women age, the income gap between men and women is narrowing, and the improvement of the material base determines that women’s living and consumption are more independent.
The data shows that the higher the income level of women, the higher the homeownership rate.
Groups with an income level of less than 3,000 yuan have a house ownership ratio of 12.12%, and groups with a monthly income of more than 15,000 yuan have a homeownership rate of 75.91%.
At the same time, highly educated women will invest more in research on housing consumption.
40.2% of women with a college degree or below spent less than one month from the beginning of viewing a house to buying a house, 3.99 and 6.35 percentage points higher than those with a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree or above, respectively; women with a higher education are more concerned about assets Safety.
In addition to the support of education and income levels, the increase in the phenomenon of women buying houses is also related to the changes in modern concepts of marriage and love.
At a time when the marriage rate is falling and the divorce rate is rising, more and more women no longer believe that they must get married to buy a house.
The importance of marriage is relatively weakened, and some women prefer to own their own house rather than the marriage house.
The Shell survey shows that 74.6% of the women surveyed believe that they need to have a house of their own before marriage.
Female consumers' demand for "independent home buying" mainly comes from three reasons: "a house is more secure than a marriage", "there is a place to shelter yourself from the wind and rain", "in a family and a marriage, it is more secure." Confident", unwilling to rely on a partner, and living a good life comes from being independent.
In addition, in the traditional concept, the man should be more responsible for the purchase of real estate before marriage; a woman's marriage to a person who "owns a house and a car" seems to be an important condition for traditional marriage.
However, as the legal definition of property before and after marriage becomes clearer and women's legal awareness continues to deepen, "the house with your name is not necessarily yours" has become a common perception among many women.
Li Li was one of the people who was affected by this and made up her mind to buy a house.
After working for four years, Li Li saved some savings and reached the age to talk about marriage.
At this time, how to plan this money and whether to invest it in real estate has become a major event before marriage.
Originally, Li Li didn't seem to be in a hurry when her boyfriend had a room, but after reading the relevant legal provisions, her mind changed.
For example, before marriage, the man buys a house with the full amount of his personal property, which is the property of the man alone; the man takes a loan before marriage to buy a house and repays it jointly after marriage. The part of the man’s contribution before marriage is personal property, and the part of the joint loan repayment is the joint property of the husband and wife. In addition, the source of funds must be considered. , whether to add a name, whether it is a gift from parents, etc...
In order to avoid getting into property disputes, Li Li simply decided to buy a house by herself, and she no longer has to think about issues such as "whether the name addition is effective".
Li Li and many other women began to weave a safety net for their future family life through pre-marriage preparation.
This phenomenon of buying a house independently before marriage is more obvious in Shenzhen girls.
The Leyoujia report shows that among unmarried home buyers in Shenzhen, 55% are women and 45% are men, with significantly more women than men.
Shenzhen girls plan ahead. Buying a house before marriage can not only live in and manage their own finances, but also protect their rights after marriage.
Author: Sun Mengfan