Uniting people and purpose: How Hannah Gill is shaping the future of real estate

When Hannah Gill started The Property Collective in 2020, she did so with a crystal-clear ethos.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together,” she says.

“The vision was to be able to unite people in real estate and really to be the best property-based business in the country.”

It’s a business model Gill has built on the foundation of putting people first and creating an environment where every team member feels valued, empowered to do their best, and to be the change they want to see in the industry.

However, to understand how Gill became an innovative industry leader, you have to understand where her career began.

Gill was just 21 when she joined a Canberra agency as a property manager, despite having no prior interest in the profession.

“I just needed a job,” she says. “That was back when you flipped through the paper to look for jobs, and there was a little logo I liked and I thought, ‘I don’t know what a property manager is, but I can probably do it’, and that’s how I got into the industry.”

It was a baptism of fire for the inexperienced but determined property manager, who was given a desk, a phone and a computer, and quickly realised it was time to sink or swim.

“I didn’t actually like the role of being a property manager at the time, but I liked trying to find solutions to the problems I was facing in the role,” Gill explains.

“Everything was manual and everything was slow. Statements were sent to landlords at the end of the month via the post. Our accountant would come in at 2am to start processing end-of-month because the system ran so slowly and we couldn’t process end-of-month and work in the system at the same time.”

Gill is glad that the “sink or swim” mentality is less prevalent in today’s business climate.

“We, as leaders in the industry, need to be setting people up to succeed, not fail,” she says.

“In property management, there’s a 40 per cent churn rate annually, nationally. So onboarding, proper training, correct setup and development pathways are critical to the future success of the industry.”

Gill later stepped into a business development manager role at the first agency she worked for, growing the team to 10 and doubling the size of the rent roll in just four years.

She admits there were some “growing pains” both there and when she started The Property Collective, but the secret to overcoming those challenges was to build a strong team culture.

“If you’ve got an aligned team and people who believe in what they’re achieving, then everyone steps up to the opportunity and the challenge,” Gill says.

Gill’s hallmark is her Culture Playbook, a guide that defines how teams are expected to collaborate and stay accountable across their time in the business.

“Culture has always been my main driver,” she says.

“I would rather my business be better culturally than make an extra 10 per cent profit margin. If you don’t have a good culture, the right leadership and the right alignment from the whole team, nothing else matters.”

Gill believes leaders must invest in their people, provide growth pathways, and lead individuals in a way that helps them succeed.

“With any conversation I have with a team member, I ask myself, ‘How can I get the very best out of them?’ ” she says.

For Gill, the solution lies in training, support, and open conversations about career goals.

Gill is also committed to driving positive change through her roles as REIACT president and REIA deputy president.

She says industry bodies provide unique, on-the-ground experience and views to various levels of government, increasingly backed by data and evidence-based reporting. 

“We’re all responsible to try and change and have a voice and speak up and advocate for better outcomes,” Gill says.

Not only is she keen to change the ‘us versus them’ perception that property managers are against tenants, Gill also wants all levels of government to tackle the housing crisis.

She says planning in each state and territory needs to be reviewed to make it quicker and easier to build more suitable housing.

“It’s also about diversity of housing,” Gill says. “Should we be building more micro-housing? Should we be building bigger houses? Should we be building more community housing? What is actually needed? It can’t be one size fits all.”