A major new survey of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) metrics for commercial real estate shows that there is a clear mandate and momentum for DEI to be a priority, with 92% of firms adopting a DEI program or initiatives to improve DEI in the workplace.
The Global Real Estate DEI Survey is the industry’s first global collection of corporate best practices and employee demographics for commercial real estate. The Survey tracks gender, race/ethnicity and nationality across seniority and job functions in Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America as well as corporate practices in relation to DEI programs, recruitment, retention, training and development, inclusivity and pay equity.
The 2021 Global Real Estate DEI Survey, a partnership between ANREV, INREV, NAREIM, NCREIF, PREA, REALPAC and ULI and conducted by Ferguson Partners, also reveals that CRE firms are increasingly employing professionals dedicated to DEI or utilizing DEI committees.
In Europe, 43% of CRE firms have professionals solely dedicated to DEI, while in Asia-Pacific that figure is 33%. In North America, 21% of firms have dedicated DEI professionals while 67% of firms have formal DEI committees responsible for developing, implementing and reviewing DEI strategies and initiatives. In both Asia-Pacific and Europe, around 44% of CRE firms utilize DEI committees.
The Survey, which collected 175 responses covering 435,000 employees globally and representing $2.4tn of gross assets under management, was conducted between September 8 to October 29, 2021. Almost three-quarters of participants reported data for the North America region (77%), with 16% of organizations reporting for Europe and 7% of participants reporting on behalf of the Asia-Pacific region.
‘The results from the Global Real Estate DEI Survey are welcome evidence of progress across the whole of the industry. However, they also paint a patchy picture of attainment and Europe has some catching up to do – specifically in terms of gender balance. The good news is that, in keeping with the overall sentiment from the survey, the vast majority of INREV’s members see DEI as a strategic priority. They will also no doubt be very willing to adopt examples of best practice from their peers in other regions, so we should absolutely expect to see continued improvements. This survey is a very valuable benchmark that will really help the entire global real estate industry to focus on becoming as inclusive and diverse as possible,’ commented Lonneke Löwik, CEO of INREV (the European Association for Investors in Non-Listed Real Estate).
