Female buyers of houses slightly outnumbered male buyers in Taiwan last year for the seventh consecutive year, according to statistics released by a real-estate agency yesterday.
Fifty-one percent of home buyers in Taiwan last year were women, the figures showed, and 82.3 percent of all homes were purchased by people aged between 30 and 59.
Women were most likely to buy homes in their 40s, with women of that age group accounting for 16.2 percent of all home purchases last year. Women in their 30s and 50s accounted for 13.9 percent and 12.2 percent of home purchases respectively, the figures showed.
Men were most likely to buy homes in their 30s, accounting for 16.3 percent of all home sales. Another 13.9 percent of homes were bought by men in their 40s, and 9.9 percent were bought by men in their 50s.
As more women have become financially independent, they have shown increasing interest in the real-estate market and some couples buy a new house under the wife’s name, real-estate broker H&B Housing analyst Hsu Chia-hsin (徐佳馨) said.
Many men buy houses when they get married, explaining why the 30-to-39 age bracket is the most popular age for men to buy property.
However, many female buyers are single and are better able to afford a house after turning 40, she said.
As for their consumption patterns, women tend to prefer regular apartments and are normally risk averse, Hsu said, with some properties even being customized to women’s needs in recent years.
Men tend to take bigger risks and buy anything from a house to a piece of land or a parking spot, she said.
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