Founder of Real Estate for Women Varsha Banker is on a mission to empower and educate women on the wealth building opportunities available in property investment.
It’s a mission that’s grounded in personal experience, as Banker herself was able to establish her own financial independence through real estate after going through a challenging divorce.
“I lost a lot of money in the process, and I spent several months feeling damaged. I just couldn’t think straight,” Banker tells Women’s Agenda about the emotional and financial toll that separation and divorce can take on women.
“But last year, I recovered. I came out stronger, and I was determined to generate wealth for myself and my son, and I knew real estate could be a game changer.”
Banker decided to start working in real estate, and began to educate herself on how to build a property portfolio. She worked with an investment company as a buyer’s agent and learned many tools and strategies for buying property.
After seeing how powerful investing in property was for her own journey to financial independence, Banker also realised how daunting real estate can feel for other women who may lack education and confidence in the area.
This realisation is what sparked Banker’s idea to create Real Estate for Women, a supportive platform for women to get educated in real estate and build wealth, especially when going through separation or divorce.
Closing gender wealth gaps through real estate
“My mission is to empower and inspire more women to reach their potential,” says Banker, adding that real estate doesn’t have to be daunting if women can find the right support to feel confident in the property market.
This kind of support is especially important considering that women typically retire with about one third less superannuation than men. This gendered super gap exists because women and men have different patterns of paid work and earning over their lifetimes, with women receiving 14% lower average weekly earnings than men.
Female-dominated industries also tend to attract lower wages than male-dominated industries, which contributes to gender inequity in earnings. Women are also much more likely to have unpaid care responsibilities, along with experiences of discrimination, bias and a lack of workplace flexibility.
“It’s quite disappointing that [women’s] super balances have always remained low”, says Banker, adding that property investments could assist in growing balances and reducing wealth gaps.
Networking and finding solutions
Last year, on Mother’s Day in May, Banker launched Real Estate for Women, and they did their first live event in Sydney that same day.
Since then, the organisation has hosted many more networking events in Sydney and Melbourne, along with workshops and seminars designed to inspire and connect women in real estate.
“Our events help women with a lot of knowledge. They build connections. They meet industry experts. They find mentors,” says Banker. She also notes that Real Estate for Women sees many recruiters at the events, who are able to offer attendees valuable advice on landing a job within the industry.
“This is the community we are building where it’s like-minded women who can empower other women and inspire them.”
In such a short span of time, Banker says she’s proud of the response Real Estate for Women has received from participants in both Sydney and Melbourne, with many saying they left feeling inspired and empowered.
“So many single mums as well come [to the events],” Banker says, “and they hear my story, and they suddenly feel that they have found someone who can help them out, even if they’re going through divorce”
“For me, my most proud moment is if I’m able to change someone’s life, and I have been successful in helping so many women already. That is my goal, to help more and more women, to close this gender wealth gap and break barriers in real estate.”
Getting educated and taking action
With the goal to touch at least a thousand lives through Real Estate for Women this upcoming year, Banker sees education as the foundation for this movement.
It’s a belief that not only shines through in the motivation behind the creation of Real Estate for Women, but also in the way that she leads her team, to scale the organisation and support as many women as possible.
“I want to empower my team with knowledge and education. I don’t want to micro-manage at all because I trust my team,” Banker says. “Right now, I’ve got a few people already working with me, and the main task is to empower them, educate them, so they are independent, and they can scale and reach out to more people.”
“Education is the key,” she says, adding that this critical foundation must then be followed by action.
When it comes to being successful as a leader in real estate, Banker says, “you really need to have ownership” and “you have to be consistently taking actions no matter how challenging it gets.”
“Life doesn’t get better by chance. It gets better by change.”
Thanks to our partner CommBank. CommBank supports women in business and the community across all industries and sectors through its Women in Focus team. For more information head to WomeninFocus.com.au.