A lack of women with executive positions in real estate, particularly in the UK, has prompted EPRA to launch a mentoring programme it announced at its 2015 conference.
The programme follows research conducted by consultancy McKinsey and steered by an EPRA group headed Meka Brunel, executive vice-president of Ivanhoé Cambridge Europe, which found that just 11% of listed real estate companies in the UK had women at board level.
Across Europe of the 94 companies in the FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Developed Europe index only 22% had women at board level.
While this compared favourably with the number of women in other sectors according to MSCI’s research the steering group found that certain countries were doing dramatically better than others in promoting women to board level positions.
The UK will be a focus for EPRA as it lags the rest of Europe. France has 34% representation at board level with Unibail-Rodamco in particular leading the way in the promotion of women to senior operational positions.
Southern European countries also performed well with an average of 23% in Spanish and Greek real estate companies.
The promotion of women to board level has positive results said McKinsey. Returns for companies with a top quartile representation of women have 47% higher returns on equity and 55% outperformance in earnings.
McKinsey said this was down to the different leadership style they bring. As a result of the effectiveness of different styles Brunel said that a diverse board was essential and not one composed of just women or men.
Brunel said the strategy promoted by EPRA will help women understand what they are able to achieve and give them the belief that they will achieve it.
At present she said, many women have a mind set in which they tell themselves they will not be able to function in a higher position, whereas men tend to worry about this after promotion.
