Impacts of Increasing Women’s Property Ownership
BY: Neelam Karamchandani
States in India recently enacted gender-based discounts to encourage female property ownership. These include stamp duty discounts, which provide a discount when property is transferred or registered to a woman, in addition to reductions on property taxes for female-owned properties.
These two discount structures have social and economic benefits. Besides increased financial independence and female empowerment, the discount structure leading to increased female land ownership has had an impact on the economy and gross domestic product in those Indian States. There is an anticipated improvement in revenue by lowering the stamp duty to encourage landowners to register their properties. When governments have given these discounts in Karnataka, there has been close to a twenty-five percent increase in the amount of documents registered, increasing revenue from the stamp duty and registration charges by almost twenty-five percent.
Ensuring women’s property rights also improves health and education in the household, as well as increases in investments in homes and businesses. These improvements at a household level, aggregate to generational improvements that better economies in developing countries long-term. By removing these barriers, women can access or inherit more property, providing them with the freedom to migrate to different places for business or educational opportunities.
The increase in income from property ownership also allows women to spend more in different markets such as education and healthcare for their children, as well as providing proper essential needs such as food, shelter, and clothing for their families. Prioritizing spending on these goods is a more productive use of that money compared to other possible ways the money could be used if it were not for these property incentives. There is research that this increase in spending also comes from the social benefits of property ownership. Owning lands could add weight to a woman’s clout, authority, and ability to make decisions for the household.
In addition to governments taking these steps toward gender equality, there needs to be more outreach efforts towards the female residents in these countries to become aware about the reforms that could benefit them. While the amount of property ownership by women remains low in certain developing countries, there is evidence that it is proportionally improving and increasing throughout the decade.
Sources
Rajul Awasthi et al., Gender-Based Discounts on Taxes Related to Property: Role in Encouraging Female Ownership (World Bank Group, Policy Research Working Paper No. 10287, 2023).
Carol S. Rabenhorst, Gender and Property Rights: A Critical Issue in Urban Economic Development, Urban Inst., July 2011.
Barriers to Women’s Land and Property Access and Ownership in Nepal (Dipina S. Rawal et al. eds., International Organization for Migration, 2016).