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A study that looked at Australia and countries in the Asia-Pacific region has revealed what women need to succeed in real estate, and addressed the biggest barrier hindering their success.
The Advancing Women in Real Estate report examines women in real estate in Australia, China, Hong Kong and Singapore, countries that have the highest number of women in the industry.
The study found that the largest barrier to women succeeding in real estate is conflict with family commitments, a challenge cited by more than 50 per cent of respondents surveyed. Half of those surveyed also said family leave and workplace flexibility were critical to the success of women.
“These findings illustrate that while companies are good at bringing women into the industry, the challenge lies in keeping women employed long-term,” the Urban Land Institute’s Women’s Leadership Initiative research committee chairman Serena Wolfe said.
“In 2017, companies should be better at enabling women to have careers and families by offering more flexibility in the workplace,” Ms Wolfe said.
The report made several recommendations to enable women to succeed in real estate. These include the provision of technical skills training and development programs, which were cited by nearly half of the respondents as being critical to success, along with informal support systems.
The study looked at Mirvac as an Australian case study of a real estate business that provided informal support systems. A Mirvac manager said her flexible working hours allowed her to balance work and family. She said this flexibility was integral to her career progression and had resulted in a positive impact on the business.
Some other recommendations in the report are:
- Providing challenging job assignments for employees to develop their skills;
- Developing a culture that prioritises fair hiring policies and practices, promoting employees based on objective measures, and providing internal and external networks;
- Prioritising mentoring and sponsorship of women to pair individuals and mentors from different parts of the company; and
- Driving change by investing in training that includes men and women, which can lead to the creation of networks that support inclusiveness.
In Australia, 62 per cent of respondents aspired for jobs in the C-suite or wanted to run their own business, the study revealed. In the Asia-Pacific region, 47 per cent of women had such aspirations.
In Singapore, 58 per cent of women wanted the top job, while the figure was 44 per cent in Hong Kong and 23 per cent in China.
The report was conducted by the Urban Land Institute’s Women’s Leadership Initiative and EY.
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