Leadership roles in the industry still mostly occupied by men
Women make up an estimated 37% of commercial real estate professionals, but the top leadership roles are still overwhelmingly held by men.
As a senior executive specializing in commercial real estate acquisitions, Kelly Alcaraz has over the years gotten used to being one of the only women in the room.
“It used to be if I came across another woman in my job it would be like, ‘Yeah!'” said Alcaraz, a vice president at Nearon Enterprises, a private investment firm in the San Francisco Bay Area.
That has gradually changed, she acknowledged, as more women have joined an industry that has traditionally been dominated by men. Findings by groups that track hiring and gender trends in commercial real estate bear out her experience. Women now occupy nearly 37% of the industry’s workforce, according to the most recent data from the Commercial Real Estate Women Network, an advocacy and networking group for female professionals in the sector.
RETS Associates, a nationwide real estate executive search firm, reported a slight increase in the proportion of female candidates it placed in commercial real estate roles from 41% women candidates in the first quarter of 2022 to 46% women candidates in the first quarter of 2024. Moreover, it found that the number of diverse candidates, including women and people of color, increased from 48% in 2023 to 53% in 2024.
But as the world marks International Women’s Month, highlighted by a dedicated day on Saturday, industry professionals stressed women still face steep advancement barriers in commercial real estate, a sector where the vast majority of the leaders and owners are still men. The 2020 CREW survey of about 3,000 real estate industry professionals from all commercial real estate sectors found that more women than ever before were occupying broker positions. It also noted that just 9% of so-called C-suite roles at the highest rungs of companies were held by women.
The group conducts benchmark studies tracking gender and diversity in the commercial real estate industry every five years in conjunction with the MIT Center for Real Estate. It is currently gathering data for its 2025 study, its fifth, measuring compensation, representation and career satisfaction of women at all levels of the industry, said Laura Lewis, a spokeswoman for the group.
Work-life balance
Based on the group’s benchmark studies going back to 2005, gender hiring practices and progress for women in commercial real estate have not moved much in the last two decades. “While the commercial real estate sector has experienced dramatic swings….the presence and status of women has remained mostly stable, with only slight progress,” concluded the 2020 study.
“If you were to pick a handful of REITs at random and look at their landing pages, you will see a bunch of mostly white male faces,” said Kent Elliott, a principal at RETS.
RETS conducts an annual survey of financial analysts in CRE as a common entry point into the industry on their career priorities and workplace experiences, among other subjects. It found women were more likely to leave a job because of the nature of the work, the culture of the firm or dissatisfaction with their bosses, while they placed less emphasis than their male counterparts on job titles and compensation.
“These factors weigh as highly as growth potential and more heavily than compensation,” concluded the RETS survey. “Flexibility and work-from-home options are also considerations for women, though to a lesser extent. On the other hand, men are more likely than women to prioritize job titles when considering a new position.”
One lasting change to workplace culture that accompanied the seismic shift to remote or hybrid work following the COVID-19 pandemic is the recognition of the importance of workers balancing their personal lives, an issue that has especially been a game-changer for women.
“If you’re on a call and your kid runs into the room, that’s no longer frowned upon — and even now that people are back in the office, there’s more flexibility,” said Alcaraz. “That’s hugely important if you’re a mom with kids at home.”
Age cliff
Even with that shift, structural barriers remain in certain industry roles that tend to keep women out. Closing the sale of a property, for example, often involves working long, unpredictable hours and being able to travel at short notice, said Alcaraz. “When there’s a deal, it’s go time, and you spend the next few weeks just inundated,” she said.
Women also continue to earn less than men, according to CREW Network. In 2020, the fixed salary gap between the sexes was 10.2%, while “the commission and bonus gap was a staggering 55.9%,” found the last benchmark study.
Overall, money is an area where women in commercial real estate have slipped backward rather than making progress, concluded the group. It found the average fixed base salary in commercial real estate in 2020 was $112,290 for men and $100,802 for women, meaning on average, women make 90 cents for every dollar that men earn in fixed salaries, doing the same work. For minority women, the study found the salary gap was even wider.
On a note that could point to change in the future, the study reflected a slight increase in the number of professionals participating who are under 40, “indicating a growing generation of young and emerging women professionals in the industry.” This points to the fact that commercial real estate is on the brink of a massive personnel shift, as 40% of the U.S. industry reaches the age of retirement in the next decade, according to the Deloitte Center for Financial Services in a 2024 report on future hiring trends.
It noted that real estate has the highest median age of any industry in the United States, a fact that could predict a massive shakeup in the next few years as companies are forced to update their values and practices to attract a younger generation of CRE talent.
To do this, the report predicts firms will need to increasingly come up with ways to accommodate “the unique challenges faced by women caregivers to establish an inclusive and supportive workplace,” given that women dedicate nearly twice as much time per day to caring for and assisting family members compared to men, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
For now, “the commercial real estate industry has made some progress in advancing diversity in hiring and executive leadership,” said Elliott of RETS. “But it’s nowhere near what it should be.”
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