As the women reservation bill has recently been passed in the upper house of the parliament after stiff opposition and uproar from three Yadav Chieftains- Mulayam, Laloo, Sharad and their ilk, the advocates of gender equality and women empowerment can also feel elated that fair sex is getting their fair share in realty world too, albeit slowly.
As it is really difficult to study the percentage of women holding apartments/other properties in their/joint names with their names coming first, still those who keenly watch realty world claim that situation is far better than, for example, ten years ago.
Supreme Court advocate Sunder Khatri says that after various state governments have decided to charge less stamp duty rates from women property buyers and also growing number of working women coming forward to invest in property, the profile of property buyers has started to alter. “There is no denying the fact that banks too give home loans to them on priority basis after RBI directives in this regards.” says Khatri, who is an expert on realty matters.
Giving sanity to euphoria that women are thronging to buy their own properties, Davinder Gupta, Managing Director of Century 21India, says that definitely more and more single women are enquiring and buying properties. But they still prefer to invest in real-estate with their husbands. Though they take the final call when they buy some property jointly with her husband or even if the property is purchased in the name of her spouse. Though earlier all the properties used to be purchased in the name of male members of the family.
Agrees JK Jain,head off Designers Arch e-homes, “Though we have not done any study on the subject, I still feel that more than 30 per cent properties are registered in the names of women. Even that is also confined to big cities compared to Tier-II & III cities. Senior journalist Anupama Jha, who purchased a flat in Mayur Vihar couple of yeas ago, has a suggestion for all the working women that they must invest in real-estate. “If you have a property of your own, then you would really feel empowered and independent. Your own property would give you huge confidence and financial security,” concludes Jha.
Says Sunil Jindal, CEO,SVP Developers, “ We should look the whole debate in a new perspective. Rather than only counting and talking aboutsingle women investing in properties, we should talk about both single women as well as those women who buy their properties jointly with their husbands. And if we count both of them, the result would be very impressive. Almost 30 per cent of our flats are purchased by women or with their spouses. ”
If women are thinking and investing in real-estate, the pro-active attitude of banks in granting loans to them has also contributed significantly. Not very long ago, banks were show reluctance about granting loans tosingle women since they saw a possible loss of income and therefore inability to service the loan following marriage.
However, this is the age of double-income families and such misgivings are a thing of the past. According to JK Jain, “We are getting more queries from prospective women buyers now, but they are more for Tier-I cities as compared to Tier-II & III cities. They preferto invest in an urban area as most urban centers escalate faster in value than in a suburban environment, so there is opportunity for greater equity growth.”
So far a Design Arch e home is concerned around 6.52% of the Omaxe home owners are women. However, around 30.25% of the buyers of our flats are the joint owners where the name of woman comes before husbands.
Meanwhile, a spokesman of API Ansal says that for some time, a very high majority (may be about 90%) of properties are being bought in joint names. It is basically happening because of two reasons: To save on registration charges. He adds that since a vast majority of house buyers go for housing loans, often one salary would not be enough to get a high loan. Hence banks suggest going for joint ownership (both for working wives as also in case of those wives who has other properties in their names).
Experts also say that women even enjoy the benefit of a higher tax rebate as compared to men. These factors act as a great incentive for women keen to buy property.
Senior journalist Dr. Anuja Bhatt is of the view that there have been many factors that have led women to come to the forefront and invest in realty. The emergence of the new breed of women achievers who place career before marriage, the desire for self-acquired security and awareness of tax benefits has fuelled interest levels. She also belongs to category of those working women who have purchased her own house before marriage and now paying the EMIs with her journalist husband, Deepak Mandal.
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