From the initial idea, through the search for a suitable property, to acquisition or building work - women work together with their partners in reaching a decision on acquiring an apartment or a house. That's the result of a representative study carried out by market research institute GfK, Nuremberg, on behalf of Allianz Lebensversicherungs-AG (Allianz Leben). The study interviewed more than 500 women aged between 25 and 50 who had bought or built a property during the past five years.

There were two significant deviations in the findings. Firstly, many women leave the negotiations with the builder or architect and supervising construction work to their (male) partner: "This is the most likely area for traditional gender roles to come into play," explained Thomas Hagel from the market research institute GfK. This is particularly the case for women with a family, where taking care of the building project is definitely an issue for men. The husband or male partner supervised building work in the case of almost two thirds of the interviewees (62 percent).

The other noticeable finding was that women over the age of 40 were more concerned about buying property: In the age group between 40 and 50 years, 28 percent of women were the sole driving force behind the project.

The personal living situation of the women interviewed undoubtedly affected their mindset and their approach to purchasing a property. Women with a family tend to be most strongly focused on building a house (40 percent). Women in a relationship with no children, where both partners are pursuing a career (DINKs; double income, no kids) and single women tend to buy. Single women are the biggest group when it comes to owner-occupied apartments (35 percent), closely followed by DINKs (34 percent).

However, another factor was common to all the groups interviewed: "The family house remains the most popular form of real estate in Germany," according to GfK market-research expert Hagel. 71 percent of all interviewees had purchased or built such a property.

Women see their property as an important part of their retirement provision. 43 cited this spontaneously. Kai Fischer, Head of Real Estate Financing at Allianz Leben, regards this as a positive sign: "The significance of property as a building block of retirement provision will continue to increase over the coming years and decades."

There are also differences here: DINKs and women from the new eastern states are even more strongly committed than average to real estate as a key element of retirement provision. The rate was 78 percent in the case of DINKs, and as high as 92 percent in the new states.

Fischer regarded as problematic the statistic that many of the women interviewed only had relatively little equity capital. Almost one third (31 percent) stated that they had equity capital of less than 20 percent.

Only single women had a higher level of equity capital: Four fifths of single women had equity capital in excess of 20 percent available. It's possible that single women are better savers than DINKs, for example. Although DINK households earn more, they tend to be less good at saving. "What's more, single women are obviously more cautious - they only decide to buy a property when they have a higher level of equity capital," was Fischer's view. He continued by saying that especially in the case of low equity capital, the key factor was in-depth advice and consultation: "That may in fact end in a recommendation to postpone building plans until adequate funds are available," commented finance expert Fischer.

When it comes to advice and finance, a person's bank is the main contact partner: Almost 90 percent of the women interviewed asked for advice from their own bank and almost three quarters also took out finance with their bank. Other banks were ranked in second place for advice, followed by home-loan savings banks. "As an integrated financial services provider, we are therefore in an outstanding position with Dresdner Bank, Allianz Dresdner Bausparkasse, and the Allianz agencies, who are also offering banking products," emphasized Fischer.

There were also regional differences when it came to finance discussions: While these consultations were carried out more frequently by women in the new eastern states, they tended to be the province of men in the states in western Germany.

Insurance agents played a subordinate role for property purchases. Only 13 percent took advice on finance from this source. However, insurance agents were undoubtedly the partners of choice for any insurance required. One fifth of the interviewees asked for advice from this quarter. "That's undoubtedly the starting point as far as we're concerned," emphasized Fischer. "Every one of these consultations should be used proactively for advice on home finance, and individual solutions should be presented."

The latest studies indicate that 37.5 million adults in Germany are now using the Internet, of which 16.5 million are women. The Allianz study showed that out of the women interviewed, every fifth interviewee looked on the Internet for financial packages. However, fewer than one percent went the whole way and took out a complete finance package online.

"As far as we're concerned, this is a sign that most customers want individual advice," said Fischer. Allianz offers a comprehensive online service, ranging from detailed property searches to financial issues. At the same time, customers have the opportunity to arrange a personal consultation with one of more than 10,000 Allianz sales agents or sales consultants at Dresdner Bank branches all over Germany.




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