By Surabhi Arora, Colliers International
There are very few industries remaining today where women are not playing
an important role.
Real estate is one of those
industries where the participation of women has increased over time and
now it is not limited to office and clerical roles. A few decades ago,
real estate was predominantly a man’s world in India, but over the past
few years, there has been a significant increase in the number of woman
entering this profession.
Women have already started making their presence known in all roles in
the real estate industry whether it is as agents, brokers, valuers or architects.
While number of women have
started growing at all levels, one of the major challenges is that they
do not have much company. This is evident when one attends an industry
conference with hundreds of participants and the number of women in the
room can be counted on two hands. This clearly shows that women have
not achieved parity with men in the real estate world. Mostly, we see
more participation at the planning and coordination level while
participation at the execution level is limited.
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Surabhi Arora,
Associate Director Research,
Colliers International. |
The residential real estate
sector often has more woman employees than the commercial real estate.
The industry has started realising that women can make major strides
because of certain characteristics, like their attention to precision,
greater perception and attention to detail, and thus, management
prefers hiring them at the planning and coordination levels.
Moreover, with increasing
sophistication due to entry of International players in the sector, the
gender gap is shrinking in real estate, though at a relatively slower
rate than other Industries.
But, we cannot put the entire blame for less women’s participation
solely on the industry; it is also about the general perception about
the real estate sector. People are either unaware of the opportunities
that exist for women in this industry due to a lack of formal education
in this sector or are concerned about safety and the overall working
environment. However, safety is a national issue that every industry is
currently facing and real estate is not much different. Until few years
ago, there were no formal courses specifically for real estate.
Because of this, there is a
less awareness about the prospects of the real estate industry from a
jobs perspective. For example, at the entry level, the number of women
applicants for jobs in real estate is less as compared to men. You can
ask any fresh MBA or post-graduate, and you will find that they are
mostly less aware of the opportunities existing in this sector.
As a chartered financial analyst, it was an unplanned entry for me into
the real estate sector but it is no different from any other sector,
i.e. same people, same thoughts and same environment. The challenges
faced by a woman in this industry are not much different from any other
industry.
The sector is entering into
a maturity phase and moving towards gaining more transparency and
corporate governance. From a career perspective, for women, real estate
holds tremendous untapped opportunity at every level of real estate
development.
About the author
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Ms. Surabhi leads the India Research team at Colliers International. She is responsible for managing all research related activities as well as local publications.
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Surabhi Arora,
Associate Director Research,
Colliers International. |
She has got expertise in professional writing, financial modeling, budgeting, financial forecasting, cash flow, sensitivity analysis etc.
Ms. SURABHI ARORA
B.Sc, CFA, MRICS
Associate Director
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