The real estate industry has long been regarded as male-dominated, and historically it has been male-led. Recently, however, and specifically in Bulgaria, many women are realizing their careers as real estate professionals, steadily influencing the field.

Despite the progress, we can observe gender pay disparities. As data from the National Statistical Institute in Bulgaria shows, the gender pay gap in real estate increased significantly in recent years, peaking in 2022 with a 10% pay gap between male and female professionals, according to the most recent records. While women constitute a larger portion of the workforce in real estate activities, making up approximately 55.7% of employees, they earn less than men, with average annual wages approximately 19.5% lower than their male counterparts.? This is only one of the many challenges female-led players face in the sector. 

Bulgaria’s property market has over 1500 traditional agencies and thousands of individual brokers, resulting in intense competition and a fragmented market. Imagine leading a startup company of 8 people, aiming to digitalize a 35-year-old industry with outdated practices and a traditional system that’s no longer trusted. However, society accepts the status quo but has yet to fully understand the adequate alternative.

Now, take all of that context and imagine this scenario: a 30-year-old female CEO with an international real estate investment and development background, fundraising, and pitching to men who are traditionally used to working with older men only. Add two female COO and Marketing Manager professionals, motivated to drive a more transparent property rental process, despite the boxes they will inevitably be put in.

All of that is very much imaginable, because it is real, and evident in the female-led management team of flatimo, aiming to break barriers and build a startup that can provide a digitalized alternative to traditional broker agencies, while facing gender-based biases. In the following lines, I will share with you advice coming from the management team of flatimo, namely CEO Sophia Topalova-Zlatkova, COO Nevena Borissova, and myself included.

We hope our advice will be helpful to any female entrepreneurs trying to make a change. Our trio is basing every word on our own experiences and how they’ve shaped us to date.