The results of a recent survey have challenged gender stereotypes and their perceived relationship to residential property purchases.
The results of a recent survey have challenged gender stereotypes and their perceived relationship to residential property purchases.
Results from the Hegney Property Group survey, which involved more than 1,000 people who had their properties valued by Hegney over a six-week period, showed that men place more emphasis on recreation and shopping when selecting a home, whereas females were more concerned about price and proximity to work.
In all, 23 per cent of women considered price as the most important factor, whereas only 15 per cent of men did.
In addition, women considered price nearly twice as important as any other factor, while men were more evenly spread across what they considered the most important factor.
Recreation was most important to 15 per cent of men, with another 15 per cent saying price was most important.
Proximity to shopping was the most important factor to 14 per cent of men, while 14 per cent said proximity to family was the main criterion.
Women rated proximity to work and schools higher than men did, but men considered shopping, recreation, transport and family more important, a result many will find surprising, according to Hegney Property group executive chairman Gavin Hegney.
“You would absolutely expect the survey results to be opposite of what they are, but it is a really interesting insight in to what is important to people,” Mr Hegney said.
The survey also asked people how they expected the property market to perform over the next year; 90.9 per cent said they expected prices to rise, 9.1 per cent expected them to stabilise, and no-one surveyed said they anticipated property prices to fall in the next 12 months.
Over the next three years, 51 per cent expected prices to continue rising, 48.2 per cent expected them to stabilise and only 0.8 per cent believed prices would fall.
And if money wasn’t an issue, 47.6 per cent of people would want to live on the coast, with Cottesloe, City Beach, Scarborough, Trigg, Hillarys and Safety Bay the preferred suburbs.
In addition, 62.2 per cent of people said they would choose to live in a different location to retire. The South West was by far the most popular choice of location for retirement, followed by southern coastal areas, and inner-city, western coastal and northern costal the equal third most popular choice.
