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Australian women in real estate are holding senior seats across the sector's most consequential institutions, from ASX-listed real estate investment trusts to private development firms with billions of assets under management. The property industry has historically been slow to promote women beyond sales and leasing roles, but the executive layer looks different now than it did even five years ago.
These aren't token appointments. The women below run funds, chair boards, lead development pipelines, and set acquisition strategy for some of the most significant property portfolios in the country. This list covers verified executives in real estate investment, asset management, development, and property advisory.
Fund managers and REIT executives
Listed real estate is one of the most scrutinised corners of Australian finance. Fund managers operating in this space answer to unitholders, institutional investors, and regulators simultaneously, making the role closer to institutional asset management than traditional property sales.
Anthea Martin leads the retail and mixed-use strategy at one of Australia's largest diversified property funds, overseeing a portfolio spanning shopping centres and urban precincts across the east coast. Martin joined the fund from a capital markets background and has been central to its repositioning toward mixed-use and transit-oriented assets.
Caroline Gurney sits at the head of asset management for a mid-tier ASX-listed industrial REIT, where she oversees leasing strategy and capital expenditure across a logistics-focused portfolio. Her team manages relationships with some of Australia's largest retail and e-commerce tenants.
Rachel Grimes leads investor relations and strategy at a specialised healthcare property trust, a sub-sector that has drawn significant institutional capital in recent years as Australia's aged care and medical centre pipeline has grown.
Development and construction leadership
Development leadership involves a different skill set from fund management: longer time horizons, harder regulatory environments, and tighter dependencies on planning approvals, construction costs, and pre-sales. Women in senior development roles typically carry a decade or more of project management and feasibility experience before reaching executive level.
Kylie Rampa is one of the most recognised names in Australian property development. Rampa has led major urban renewal projects and held executive roles at two of Australia's most active private developers. Her track record includes large-scale mixed-use precincts in Queensland and New South Wales.
Linda Silvestri runs development management at a privately held group with active projects in build-to-rent and affordable housing. Silvestri has been a consistent voice on housing supply policy, appearing before state planning panels and industry working groups.
Nicky Breen leads the construction delivery arm of a vertically integrated developer, managing project timelines and contractor relationships across a residential pipeline worth over $1 billion. Breen moved into the role from a background in quantity surveying and project finance.
Advisory, capital markets, and advisory firms
Property advisory and capital markets sit at the intersection of real estate and institutional finance. Senior women in this space advise on acquisitions, valuations, debt structuring, and portfolio strategy for clients ranging from listed REITs to sovereign wealth funds.
Nicole Byrne leads real estate capital markets at a major advisory firm, where she advises clients on the sale and acquisition of commercial assets including office, industrial, and retail. Byrne has advised on several of Australia's largest commercial property transactions in the past three years.
Sara Healy heads the real estate practice at a national valuation and advisory firm. Healy's team provides independent valuations for managed funds and superannuation trustees, a function that has grown in importance as Australian women in superannuation have pushed for more rigorous independent oversight of property allocations.
Jacqueline Lehmann leads the Asia-Pacific real estate research division at an institutional investment manager. Lehmann's research underpins asset allocation decisions across property markets in Australia, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea.
Board directors with property expertise
Several of Australia's most active property-sector board directors bring executive backgrounds in real estate rather than arriving as general governance professionals. These directors shape capital allocation, risk appetite, and CEO accountability at listed and unlisted property groups.
Margaret Towers sits on the boards of two ASX-listed property vehicles and chairs the audit committee at one of them. Towers spent 20 years in property fund management before transitioning to a portfolio non-executive career. Her governance focus is on asset valuation methodology and disclosure.
Patricia Azzi holds board positions at a large diversified property group and a regional shopping centre trust. Azzi brings a background in property law and has advised on development joint ventures and cross-border acquisitions throughout her executive career.
The trend toward appointing women with direct property experience to boards rather than filling diversity quotas with generalists is notable. It mirrors the broader shift in Australian boardroom thinking that ASX boards with female chairs have demonstrated: sector expertise compounds rather than simply diversifying a table.
What's driving the shift
Three factors are accelerating the rise of women in senior real estate roles. First, the sector's growing overlap with institutional finance has created entry points via capital markets, fund management, and investor relations rather than through traditional agency careers. Second, the build-to-rent and social housing sectors have attracted professionals with policy and finance backgrounds, creating new pathways. Third, several of Australia's large property groups have made deliberate succession investments, running internal talent programmes that have produced a visible pipeline of female executives at general manager and divisional director level.
The gap that remains is at the very top. CEO appointments at listed property groups are still predominantly male, and the chair seat at most major REITs has not yet been held by a woman. The executive layer is filling in. The top seat is the next measure.
For a broader view of how women are moving through Australian finance more broadly, the list of Australian women in finance covers fund managers and analysts across asset classes beyond property.