Survey: Modern women favor luxuries

MODERN women displayed a higher appetite for luxury goods, property and expect to make their investments work harder, with a higher expectation of investment returns when compared to a middle class average, a survey found.

Modern women, estimated at 17.4 million last year and likely to swell to 31.5 million in 2016, are urban-based and aged 30 to 44. They have also graduated from college and are professionally employed, according to the survey.

HSBC and MasterCard Worldwide conducted a total of 1,736 in-depth, face-to-face interviews from February to May in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou to identify the middle-class lifestyle, symbols of wealth and aspirations. Fudan University was commissioned to design and implement the survey in the three cities.

Modern women display the strongest appetite for luxury goods with 85 percent having purchased such items, followed by the middle class at 76 percent.

Forty-four percent of modern women bought luxury goods for quality, with 40 percent of middle class saying they are the least price-sensitive.

The survey showed modern women as having the highest incidence of owning homes – 86 percent to 77 percent for middle class).

On property purchase plans, 53 percent of modern women plan to buy in the next three to five years while 57 percent of the middle class want to do so.

Fifty-two percent of modern women hold property investments compared with 42 percent the middle class.

Domestic stocks are, not surprisingly, popular for wealth growth. Thirty-eight percent of modern women invest in domestic stocks compared to 34 percent among middle class.

On insurance, the majority of the middle class own some form of insurance (life and non-life). For example, 67 percent of modern women have life insurance, higher than the middle class' 62 percent. Fifty-eight percent of modern women have critical illness insurance versus 52 percent for the middle class.

Modern women's strongest aspiration is to earn higher returns on investments at 26 percent versus 25 percent for the middle class, followed by self-cultivation and improvement.

The overall usage of professional financial advisors is low. Only 10 percent of modern women and seven percent of the middle class use this service.

China's burgeoning middle class will reach 100 million by 2016 from 35 million today. Middle class is defined as those aged between 20 and 49 with annual personal incomes in the range of US$7,500 to US$25,000.