Similar to the West, the Philippines is the only Asian country where Lamudi is present where women are the primary users of real estate websites, according to new data from the global property portal.
The Philippines joins Latin American countries Colombia, Peru, and Mexico, where women are emerging as the dominant decision-makers when searching for property online. According to data, 64 percent of online property seekers in the Philippines are women.
In contrast, onsite data from the website reveals that men account for the majority of users searching for real estate to buy or rent in the emerging markets. In countries such as Nigeria, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, as many as three-quarters of online property-seekers are male. Male house-hunters also significantly outnumber women in the online property search process in Ghana (where 68 percent of users are men), Tanzania (68 percent), Saudi Arabia (63 percent), and Senegal (60 percent).
Lamudi’s findings for the Philippines echo research conducted in the West, which has shown that women are the primary users of online property portals. In the United States, for example, 53 percent of people who sign up to buy or sell real estate online are female, figures from Realtor.org show.
In Latin America, women account for the majority of online property-seekers. Female house-hunters are more likely to search online for real estate, including Colombia (64 percent), Mexico (63 percent), and Peru (66 percent). In Indonesia, male and female online property-seekers are split 50-50.
According to Lamudi Philippines Managing Director Jacqueline van den Ende, compared to their counterparts in Asia, women in the Philippines have always enjoyed a greater share of equality.
“The Philippines is perhaps one of few Asian countries where women are on equal footing with men in terms of educational, economic, and political opportunities.”
In 2014, the World Economic Forum’s “Global Gender Gap Report” ranked the Philippines ninth in terms of gender equality.
