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Just 2% of UK real estate funds are managed by women.

1 year ago (ish) I met Juan at UKREiiF.

Our chat quickly moved from Affordable Housing deals to something personal:

Why does it still feel so hard for talented women to progress into the most senior roles in real estate investing?

We realised the issue wasn’t ambition or capability, but a set of less visible barriers around sponsorship, visibility, leadership and community.

So, long story short, we created Lead As You Are to try to resolve this.

A year later, what has surprised me most is that the solution hasn’t just been “more training”.

It’s been the combination of structured learning + an honest peer support + a safe space to be more deliberate about your career.

From our founding cohort, 4 women have secured new senior roles, 2 £100m+ deals have progressed, and 2 women have navigated job changes with great confidence and outcomes.

We have rethought how they deal with conflict, found new sponsors and advocates, and become much clearer about what they actually want. And more importantly a belief that women in real estate should be able to lead as they are.
Juan and I have learned just as much as anyone in the programme.

In the latest episode of The Return, we talk about where LAYA came from, what we’ve learned so far, and why some of the biggest barriers to progression are things we simply don’t know we don’t know.

It’s for women navigating the next stage of their careers - and leaders and advisors trying to build genuinely more diverse senior teams.

Would love to hear what you think we’re still missing.

Anna's LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/
Juan's LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/juan-du-4b30b141/
LAYA's LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/lead-as-you-are/

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There are currently 728,000 people working across real estate in the UK.

And yet, just 2% of real estate funds are managed by women.

This, despite the fact that most firms are actively trying.

And, the data shows that diverse leadership creates better commercial outcomes.

So why the gap?

I’ve spent the past year having quiet, off the record conversations with women throughout the industry, and I kept hearing the same 3 things:

Lack of role models - you can’t be what you can’t see, so imbalance creates more imbalance

Isolation - when you’re the only woman in your firm and you feel disconnected, you feel less good and frankly, in a people business, you will be way less effective

Unique challenges that it’s possible to overcome with the right support/training - from balance and boundaries to redesigning your career in a slow market - women in this sector need specific advice

The thing that broke my heart about these conversations was the fact that so many of these highly talented, high achieving women were looking at their escape plans from an industry that really needs them.

So we decided to run an experiment.

We wondered if we could bring a small group of these women together and get them to define the specific problems and frustrations they were facing…

Maybe, together, we could solve them.

And thus, Lead As You Are, a leadership programme created by and for women at Director level in real estate investment, was born.

After 12 months, the first cohort has now wrapped, featuring women from firms including Legal & General, Patron Capital, Tristan Capital Partners and Pinnacle Investments.

The response told us this needed to go further. We were massively oversubscribed for the second and third cohorts. And lots of people expressed interest who aren’t in London.

So we decided to launch a Lead As You Are podcast series - conversations with the members, helpers, and incredible guest speakers - like Dame Allison Nimmo and Jenny Buck.

In the first (mini) episode of the series, we dig into three things that stuck with us from the first cohort and where we’re going from here.

Tag anyone who might enjoy this, or who should be involved with the programme.

Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/

LAYA LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lead-as-you-are/

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£39 billion is going into UK affordable housing.

Sounds like a lot.

But in practice, the estimated need is 145,000 affordable homes per year.
This programme could deliver 30,000.

That gap is the opportunity for investors.

The default structure of investments has changed.

It’s no longer just:
→ debt + government grant

It’s now:
→ debt + equity + grant

Private capital isn’t optional.
It’s essential.

In our latest podcast episode, we cover:

• Who is positioned to deliver at scale
• The return profile for Affordable Housing
• How entry barriers create a competitive advantage

Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-german-2437573b/

Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/