The real estate industry is failing to do enough or move quickly enough to shrug off its very real perception of being overwhelmingly male, white and privileged.
That was the finding of the latest industry EDI survey by Real Estate Balance. The survey, which collected responses from 50 REB member organisations and 796 individuals, makes for depressing reading.
Progress has been slow or non-existent and, in the case of female representation, has largely slipped backwards over the past two years.
While the percentage of women on real estate boards has increased from 19%, when REB first undertook its survey in 2016, to 27% this year, this is down from 30% in 2020 and 29% in 2022.
Where are all the women?
The picture is even worse in senior leadership positions and middle management, where the proportion of women in these roles is dramatically lower than in 2016 – falling from 32% to 25% and from 43% to 38% respectively.
Only in the qualified and graduate or entry levels has the proportion of women shown any kind of growth, albeit marginal.
“It’s hard not to be disheartened by some of the results – particularly the gender balance at senior levels,” said Real Estate Balance managing director Sue Brown. “It’s clear we’ve still got more work to do in this area and we need to keep at it. But we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that the lived experiences of people working in our industry, and the culture of the industry itself, has changed dramatically over the past 10 years.”
Brown added that, while the figures were disappointing, they did help discount the idea that there were not enough women at levels immediately below senior and board levels to develop and promote.
She said that in 2025 Real Estate Balance would be using the results of the survey to help identify and address the specific barriers preventing women, as well as those from minority groups, from crossing the gap between middle management and senior leadership levels.
Just as real estate stood up to its stereotype of being mostly male, the survey results also revealed an overwhelmingly white workforce.
Persistently male, pale and posh
Compared with England and Wales, real estate showed a greater proportion of Black and Asian professionals. However, when compared against London figures – where the majority of survey responses came from – the sector was well below the average.
Census figures for London revealed that just over 20% of the population is Asian and 14% is Black. In real estate, these figures dropped to 9% and 5% respectively for individual responses and to 8% and 5% for company responses.
The survey also revealed the level of privilege within the real estate sector, with more than one-quarter of the industry having attended an independent or fee-paying school. This compares with a national average of just 7%.
In its defence, however, real estate is not the most privileged sector. That honour goes to the judiciary, where 65% of senior judges have been privately educated. Even editors and broadcasters are more privileged with 43% attending fee-paying schools, according to data from the Sutton Trust.
“EDI has come on leaps and bounds in the last 10 years, especially around sex, gender and mental health,” said one respondent to the survey. “However, not enough is being made of social mobility. Property is getting better, but internships are often unpaid and the sector itself is just not visible through academia.”
Another added: “I would love to see the industry campaign to end internships for children of business leaders’ friends and more focus on giving these opportunities to those who are less socially mobile.”
Incentivising inclusivity
While the industry continues to battle its very real stereotype of being male, pale and posh, the survey did show that it had started to take steps that should eventually lead to real change.
It now recognises that its biggest challenges lie in ethnic diversity, gender equality and social mobility, with gender and ethnicity also being the areas that individuals are most dissatisfied with.
The survey also showed significant gaps in areas of EDI where individuals saw issues and businesses did not. These included neurodiversity, age, caring responsibilities and gender identity, highlighting where further work is needed.
Key among the changes that businesses were making to try to drive change were EDI policies and action plans, flexible working, active driving of cultural and behavioural change and enhanced parental policies and practices.
When asked which EDI intervention survey respondents would like to see more of in future, companies and employees were completely aligned, with both agreeing that incentivising inclusive behaviours was the most effective way forward – providing important insight that offering financial incentives for EDI may form the industry’s future direction of travel.
Brown said the industry’s push towards incentivising inclusive behaviours was one of the most valuable changes the sector could make. She highlighted a survey respondent who said that men were not incentivised to listen to EDI challenges and that they only saw that changing if there was a financial benefit introduced.
“This is a really, really positive move and companies are really taking it seriously,” said Brown. “We’re not fully there yet, but we are moving in the right direction.”
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