Women hold 52% of entry-level jobs in New Zealand’s property industry. By supervisor level, the first step into management, their share has fallen to 30%.
That drop is the main driver of a 24.9% median gender pay gap in favour of men, according to research commissioned by Property Council New Zealand’s Inclusion Alliance.
The Property Council is a not-for-profit body representing 610 member companies, including some of the country’s largest commercial and residential property owners and developers. Its Inclusion Alliance is a group of chief executives and senior leaders from across the sector.
Remuneration specialists Strategic Pay analysed pay data collected in the first quarter of 2026 from more than 11,600 employees at 30 organisations. The firms ranged from fewer than 40 staff to almost 2,500, and executive salaries were left out of the calculations.
Leonie Freeman, chief executive of Property Council New Zealand, says the Alliance commissioned the work because “you cannot fix what you don’t measure”.
A promotion gap more than a pay gap
The report says the gap comes mostly from which jobs women hold, not from women being paid less for the same job. When jobs of similar scope and responsibility were compared, regardless of title, the gap shrank to within about 11% in every size band.
Men are concentrated in engineering, construction and trades, which tend to command higher pay in this industry. Women are concentrated in administration, customer service, human resources and finance. Engineering roles alone account for 62.5% of employees in the dataset, which the report says makes that split weigh more heavily than it would elsewhere.
The sample reaches well beyond developers and landlords. Participants include engineering consultancies such as Beca, WSP and Aurecon, along with Auckland International Airport, Foodstuffs South Island and Queenstown Lakes District Council.
Seniority adds a second layer. Women hold 37% of technical specialist roles, 30% of supervisory roles, 25% of middle management roles and 24% of senior management roles.
The median gap in fixed remuneration peaks at 27% at supervisor level and narrows to 11.5% in middle management. At senior management it tips 3.2% in women’s favour, but the report puts that down to a small sample of 38 women and 121 men, where a handful of salaries can swing the result.
The report calls the supervisor drop the “broken rung”. It says that once the first promotion is missed, every level above it becomes structurally harder to reach.
Two different measures
Stats NZ puts the national gender pay gap at 5.3% in the June 2026 quarter, little changed from 5.2% a year earlier. The two figures aren’t measured the same way. Stats NZ compares median hourly earnings from wages and salaries, which the Ministry for Women notes leaves out bonuses and overtime.
The property figure compares median fixed and total remuneration. In the report’s definitions, fixed remuneration includes benefits such as vehicles, allowances and the employer’s KiwiSaver contribution.
The report sets the property result alongside other technical industries, citing gaps of 24% in accounting, 23% in finance and insurance and 22% in energy.
What firms are doing about it
The Alliance’s signatories have committed to make the data public and report on it honestly, including the uncomfortable parts. They’re developing an action plan to help women move into senior roles faster in the three career paths where the gap is most pronounced. Those are asset management, property and portfolio management, and development management.
The report names sponsorship as the missing lever. It says men typically progress informally through networks, advocacy and sponsorship, while women often receive mentoring support without accountability. Deliberate, structured sponsorship across the sector is one intervention it says could change that.
Any employer can run the same numbers on its own payroll. Public service agencies are already required to calculate both mean and median pay gaps. For other employers, the Ministry for Women’s free gender pay gap toolkit, launched in November 2024, includes an online calculator, a data workbook, a self-assessment tool and a guide for small and medium-sized businesses.
The ministry recommends reporting beyond HR and leadership teams only when each group being compared has more than 10 employees. It also says a gap can widen at first when a firm hires more women, because they’re likely to start in lower-paying roles or as new graduates. Clear progression pathways for those new starters close it over the longer term.
The Alliance plans to share full details of its action plan in 2027. It’ll track progress every two years, with the first full follow-up report due in 2028.
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