SMRITI IRANI, Former Union Minister

Traditionally women have been conditioned /trained that money is saved for their education and marriage so that they get settled in life. I was however not traditional in that sense and from a very young age, I was very clear as to what capital asset I would own. At the age of 7, I told my father that I will buy a house at XYZ place which is not what most girls talk about.

But times are changing. Women are now aspiring to own property. A recent survey on women by a real estate consultancy firm in India, revealed that 60% of women said that they would rather own a home than owning jewellery. This clearly shows the huge mindset change in women. Maybe I was one of the first generations where mindset change was becoming evident.

Today, one of the greatest conversations is around the topic of ownership of capital assets by women. . People presume that only educated women in Tier-1 cities would know how to buy a house. But if you look at the housing finance ecosystem, only 10-12% home loan borrowers are women whereas overall 42% home ownership will rest with them. If you look at how many women own home singularly, the figure is only 13%. Jointly, with men, they own 42% of homes. It’s simply because somebody offered a concession in stamp duty-so it makes sense.

Looking at home registrations across major urban centres, numbers are very promising because these came from the top. When PM Narendra Modi wanted to build homes for the poor, his condition was either a home has to be jointly owned by the woman of the house or singularly owned by her. So, today out of 4 crore houses, 2 crore houses are singularly owned by women who are poor.

But the biggest challenge with that is there is a thinking that people in rural areas are poor and they don’t have capacity to own a capital asset. However, statistics show that home ownership by women in rural areas is 45% against 37% in urban centres. There’s this considerable gap. Real estate industry bodies like NAREDCO and its women wing-MAHI can come forward to encourage more and more women to start buying more and more properties. Women may oscillate towards buying residential properties -so be it. They may not have such an inclination towards commercial property. But if you look at the trajectory of the past one decade, there’s a 20% leg up.

Today in urban centres 22% residential properties are owned by women. MAHI, as a cohesive unit with NAREDCO, can push for more and more ownership of residential properties by women, especially young girls. They should be helped to realize their potential to own a home. Make sure that the housing finance ecosystem reaches out to women so that more and more women can own property in our country.

We are aspiring for Viksit Bharat by 2047 to gain the economic might of a developed nation.  Can we ensure that 500 million women who form part of our workforce aspire to have at least one roof over their head independently. That for me is Viksit Bharat. That would mean women acquire genuine economic power and are financially robust enough to afford a roof over their head. So, for me, that’s the promise of Viksit Bharat.