Listed real estate companies have shown almost no improvement in gender diversity in their leadership roles over the past year.

Across 73 real estate and construction companies in Europe, there are just seven female chief executives and five female chairs, according to European Women on Boards.

EWOB’s 2021 study found 20% of executive positions are held by women, the same level reported a year earlier.

There has also been little change at the top, with the addition of one female chief executive and loss of one female chair in the space of a year.

EWOB reported that 30% of leadership positions in real estate and construction are held by women, compared to 29% a year earlier. On company boards this rose to 33% against 31%.

However, the industry is broadly in line with its listed peers. When looking across some 668 listed companies in Europe, EWOB found 30% of leadership roles held by women and 35% of board positions were held by women.

Of the 668 companies, three-quarters did not have a single female in any C-level position. Overall there were 169 C-suite women, of which 50 held chief executive positions.

Irish Residential Properties REIT was highlighted as having a female chief executive, Margaret Sweeney (pictured). Some 54% of executives at the company are women, 35 percentage points higher than the average.

The company ranked the second highest for diversity in Ireland. Drilling down to the UK, Assura led the real estate ranking, with 53% of leadership roles held by women and half of board positions and executive positions also going to women.

The study was conducted by Kantar Public between June and August last year. EWOB excluded 14 companies as some information was not publicly available meaning IWG, Persimmon, SEGRO and Tritax Big Box REIT were not in the ranking.

Hedwige Nuyens, chair of EWOB, said: “This has to change. We simply cannot afford such a waste of talent. Progress has been strikingly slow even in the Nordic countries, known to be very gender equal.”

She added: “Change generally happens only when we feel the urge to do so.” Nuyens noted that regulatory targets had seen some movement “in the right direction” in countries including Belgium, Norway and France.

“Clear objectives, measures and reporting linked with remuneration, effective talent management, succession planning and promotion rules all help,” she said. “Women are willing to contribute and have their voice heard. The business case is clear. It is time for politicians, companies and countries to act.”