Women in Montenegro own 36% and 31% of the total number of residential and commercial/business units respectively. However, only 25% of the total square footage of all registered real estate belong to women. The same percentage of women (25%) are the sole owners of real estate, while as much as 59% of men have 1/1 ownership. Women most often acquire real estate by purchase - 40%, while 36% of them acquired real estate by inheritance. These are some of the key findings from a research Gender and property ownership in Montenegro - mapping the property gap, presented on 4 July in Podgorica.
The research was commissioned by the OSCE Mission to Montenegro and conducted by the DeFacto Consultancy Agency. Data collection is based on the entire sample of all (404,145) residential and commercial real estate units in Montenegro registered in the Cadastre.
Presenting the results at the press conference, Olivera Komar from the DeFacto Agency stated that the report proved the existence of inequality or a gap between men and women when it comes to ownership of real estate in Montenegro. "With the increase in the number of real estate that one person owns, the probability that that person is female decreases drastically. Thus, four out of five owners of five or more properties are male. Regional disparities are rather large, and majority of women own, inherit and buy real estates in the south. The lowest number of them are from northern parts of Montenegro. In the ownership structure, women are least represented in the municipalities of Petnjica (10%), Tuzi (12%) and Gusinje (15%), while they are most represented in the coastal municipalities of Budva (45%), Herceg Novi (44%) and Bar/Tivat. (40%)," said Komar.
Also, she added, women own less real estate on average. Among the owners who own only one property, 37% are women, while their share decreases as the number of properties decreases. Thus, 30% of them are among the owners of two properties, 27% among the owners of three properties, 25% among the owners of four and only 22% among the owners of five or more properties. "Although the majority of adult citizens of Montenegro are married or in extramarital union (which are legally equal), slightly less than 4% of real estate is owned jointly by the both owners."
Siv-Katrine Leirtroe, Deputy Head of Mission, stated that for the first time, we have data on the real estate that is inherited by men and by women. "We can measure the real effect of traditional and patriarchal social norms on the distribution of property and the eventual pressure on women to give it up in favour of male relatives. The obtained results are, therefore, an excellent indicator and starting point for monitoring the state of gender equality," said Leirtroe. She expressed hope that in the future this kind of analysis will be a regular task of the institution that owns the data, while the data will be actively used by policy makers and credit institutions that encourage female entrepreneurship.
Olivera Vukajlović, Head of Directorate of Competitiveness Enhancement in Ministry of Economic Development and Tourism said that the Ministry recognizes the importance of gender equality, and year after year implements measures and activities that contribute to reducing the gap between women and men in the economy, although the figures show that this gap is still evident. "Within the programme implemented by the Ministry, 128 projects of micro, small and medium enterprises owned by women were supported through nine programme lines, in the total amount of €918,038.13. Bearing in mind that the Ministry financially supported 359 projects in the total amount of €2,978,916.07, the fact that 35.65% of those supported were majority-owned by women is of great importance," said Vukajlović.
Presented research should serve as baseline data for measuring the effectiveness of public awareness campaigns on the importance of equality in terms of inheritance, whereas the report can be used to plan interventions that influence decrease of gender gaps, such as credit institutions that focus on the promotion of female entrepreneurship.
