Last month, Real Estate Balance published the results of its 2022 survey – the most comprehensive study of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) in the property industry. 

 

Commissioned every two years and now in its fourth edition, this sector-wide survey helps to track progress, uncover the key DEI issues within real estate, and identify where change is needed most.

The data was collected in September 2022 via two anonymous surveys, the Company Survey and the Employee Survey. Over 30 real estate organisations and more than 750 property professionals took part, providing a representative sample of the industry as a whole. 

The results add to the evidence base Real Estate Balance has been building since 2016 when we carried out our very first survey, helping to develop an up-to-date picture of where the industry currently stands on DEI. 

 

Overall, the 2022 results indicate that important progress has been made since 2016: both companies and employees generally agree that DEI practise has improved, and there’s a clear increase in companies’ ambition to track data across an increasing range of DEI measures – from gender, ethnicity and social mobility through to neurodiversity.

 

What’s more, amidst the huge workplace changes we’ve seen over the last couple of years, hybrid working appears to be having a positive impact on employee work-life balance, mental health and productivity, and the ability to work flexibility no longer represents a barrier to accommodating diverse groups. 

 

Despite this progress, there is still work to be done: gender representation remains close to parity from graduate level to middle management, yet plummets at senior leadership level – a situation that has not changed since 2016. There’s also limited ethnic diversity amongst senior leaders, for which a lack of diverse candidates at middle management level is cited as the biggest challenge.  

 

For the first time in 2022, we attempted to assess the level of social mobility in the real estate workforce. With employee responses indicating a higher level of privilege than the nation as a whole on two out of three social mobility measures, it seems that further work is needed to ensure the real estate industry is accessible to people of diverse social backgrounds.  

 

Having reviewed the results of the 2022 survey, it’s clear to me that DEI remains an important topic for our industry. As one respondent commented: 

 

Along with our members, Real Estate Balance is committed to creating practical solutions that address industry DEI imbalances – helping to create a more robust and representative sector for everyone.