A woman’s name on the property title is only the beginning

• by Yogesh Verma and Shreya Rai
• Aug 6, 2026
• 5 min

Women’s participation in property ownership and housing finance in India is rising due to supportive policies and legal reforms. However, true economic empowerment requires more than formal ownership. It requires recognition of women as informed borrowers, decision-makers, and active participants in housing finance and asset management.

When a woman’s name appears on a property title, what does it really signify? Does it reflect genuine ownership, control over assets, and financial agency, or does it simply indicate formal inclusion? India has made significant progress in expanding women’s participation in the workforce, property ownership, and formal housing finance through legal reforms, public policy, and lender initiatives. Yet, formal inclusion does not automatically translate into economic agency. The challenge now is to ensure that inclusion translates into meaningful participation as earners, borrowers, asset owners, and financial decision-makers. Housing lies at the heart of this challenge because, for most households, a home is their largest asset and an important source of long-term financial security. 

A secure home offers far more than shelter. It provides privacy, stability, dignity, and safety, while also supporting work, generating income, and offering protection during periods of financial distress. For decades, women have played a central role in building and sustaining households, yet their contribution has rarely translated into property ownership or access to formal housing finance. Women’s growing contribution to household income, together with supportive policies and lender initiatives, is creating stronger pathways to home ownership and housing finance. 

In 2023-24, the labor force participation rate among women aged 15 and above rose to 41.7%, up from 23.3% in 2017-18, while the share of women in employment increased from 22% to 40.3%. The redesigned Periodic Labor Force Survey (PLFS) for 2025, the first survey under the new format also points to continued momentum, with rural women’s participation rising further up to 45.9%. Yet, higher workforce participation does not necessarily mean women have stable or well-paying jobs, as much of their employment remains informal, self-employed, or linked to family enterprises. These trends suggest that, despite rising labor force participation, important gaps in the quality of employment and meaningful economic participation remain. At the same time, they show that women’s contribution to household income is becoming increasingly visible and harder for financial institutions to overlook. This growing economic visibility has also coincided with an increase in women’s recorded ownership of housing, although much of this ownership remains joint rather than independent. 

UNFPA’s analysis of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-4 and NFHS-5 data shows that the share of women aged 15-49 who owned a house, independently or jointly, increased to 42.3% in 2020-21 from about 37.1% in 2015-16.  

This progress has been supported by legal reforms, government housing programs, state-level incentives, and initiatives by financial institutions. Together, these measures have created stronger pathways for women to own property and access housing finance. At the national level, the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, gave daughters in Hindu joint families the same coparcenary rights as sons. Government housing programs then created direct pathways to ownership. Under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana–Urban 2.0, houses receiving central assistance are generally required to be registered in the name of the female head of the household or jointly in the names of both spouses, subject to specified exceptions. About 8.9 million PMAY-U houses stood in women’s sole or joint names by August 2024. By January 2026, the government reported that it had sanctioned 9.0 million houses to women. Under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin (PMAY-G), around 19.5 million of the 26.8 million houses completed by December 2024 were registered solely in a woman’s name or jointly in the names of both spouses. This represents about 73% of completed houses under the program. The program now aspires to achieve 100% women’s ownership. 

State governments have reinforced these measures by reducing the upfront cost of property registration for women. In Delhi, stamp and transfer duty stands at 4% for women purchasers, compared with 6% for men. Financial institutions also introduced incentives, such as lower interest rates for women owners or co-owners and higher loan eligibility when they included a woman’s income in household assessments. In 2023, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) committed up to USD 100 million to IIFL Home Finance, with half the funding earmarked for women’s housing finance. Women-focused portfolios have become more than an inclusion objective. They are also emerging as an important funding and business strategy for financial institutions. These policies and market interventions are increasingly reflected in women’s participation in housing finance and their performance as borrowers. 

Over the five years through December 2025, the number of women borrowers registered a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.2%, compared with 8.2% for men. Women represented 32.2% of outstanding housing-loan portfolios, and their repayment performance was also marginally stronger, with 2.2% of women’s home-loan balances being overdue by 31 to 180 days, compared with 2.5% for men. Even after accounting for the smaller base, the data indicate that women are emerging as a comparatively resilient borrower segment, with repayment performance that is marginally better than that of men. 

MSC’s (MicroSave Consulting) recent research on affordable housing across selected geographies revealed strong demand for self-construction, renovation, reconstruction, and incremental expansion. Women accounted for more than two-fifths of the study participants. They expressed a desire to build on existing plots, add rooms or floors, repair aging structures, and move out of rented or inadequate homes. Although women did not always interact directly with lenders, their preferences shaped key household decisions. Affordability, privacy, sanitation, ventilation, children’s space, and household safety consistently influenced those decisions. Women often served as co-decision-makers during housing decisions. They also shaped what households considered affordable equated monthly installments (EMIs) and acceptable financial risk. Lenders should therefore assess women’s housing demand beyond the number of primary female applicants. Women often influence the purpose, affordability, and repayment of housing loans even when a man submits the application. 

As India has made strong progress in recording women as owners and borrowers. The next challenge is to give that formal visibility economic meaning. Affordable housing finance can translate women’s growing presence in property and credit records into meaningful economic empowerment. Property ownership can strengthen women’s financial security, resilience, and influence over household decisions. Lenders must now move beyond traditional products for women and adopt women-centric approaches that offer a broader range of services. A woman’s presence on a loan document should reflect her role in the decision rather than satisfy a procedural requirement. Lenders must recognize informal and home-based income more systematically, involve women directly in loan counseling, and ensure they understand repayment obligations, fees, insurance, and the risks associated with mortgaging property. The first phase of inclusion brought women onto property titles and loan documents. The next phase must recognize them as income earners, informed borrowers, and decision-makers. It must also give them a meaningful voice in how their assets are financed, used, and managed.