Women Focused on Financial Strategies

Two Mortgage Choice surveys have identified that Australian women plan to take decisive action with their financial positions this year.

The Mortgage Choice survey reported:

"The perception of property as a ‘safe’ investment was on the increase, with 65% of females saying the credit crunch made investing in property seem safer than shares (compared with 63% of males).

Although females overall were less likely to buy property in the next year, when they did they were marginally more likely to make an owner occupied purchase (42% of females vs. 29% of males).

Females were more likely to pick up tools and don the overalls in 2009 than men, with a higher percentage of females renovating existing property rather than purchasing a new one (44% of females vs. 38% of males).

However, they were less likely to buy shares as an alternative to property (9% of females vs. 14% of males) and less likely to buy shares in addition to property (11% of females vs. 18% of males).

Additional interesting female first homebuyer-to-be demographics were as follows:

• 33% will purchase alone.
  
• 58% will make a joint purchase with a romantic partner, while 3% will buy with siblings, 3% with parents, 3% with other family members and 1% with friends.
• 37% will be aged 41+ years when they buy (as was the case with males), 17% will be 36-40 years, 16% will be 31-35 years, 18% will be 26-30 years, 12% will be 20-25 years and less than 1% will be aged 20 years or younger.
• 20% had no idea about the property purchase process
• 58% planned to buy a house over any other property type

Males were more likely to go it alone (40%) and less likely to buy with their partner (52%).

“Some people might be surprised that such a high percentage are waiting until their 40s or beyond to purchase their first home. Depending on the size of the deposit, there is a possibility that these people will be making repayments well into their retirement years,”Ms Sheppard said.

“Perhaps the reason why more and more females are buying later in life is they are not doing enough research to establish what is possible earlier or it could be they are concentrating on other life goals first, such as career and travel”.

For a full report on the survey visit ==> Mortgage Choice Survey.

For information on property investment ==> NRAS - New Class of Investment Property