Wherever she meets a glass ceiling, Becky Fatemi sets about breaking it. Her rise in the property industry – long dominated (at least at the super-prime level) by male agents in tweed jackets – is impossible to ignore.
A Londoner with Persian heritage, Fatemi is unapologetic about who she is, where she has come from, and the style with which she operates.
After merging Rokstone, the estate agency she built, with Sotheby’s International Realty UK in 2023, the broker has underlined her credentials as one of the leading property advisers at the top end of the London market and now globally. She boasts an enviable – and truly international – client book, which is kept confidential, naturally. But her Instagram feed (@beckyfatemi) hints at the calibre of her network, with everyone from Idris Elba and Edward Enninful to Naomi Campbell and Maya Jama pictured.
But finding success as a highly visible woman of colour working in a traditional industry brings a certain weight of expectation. ‘It’s not a burden, but [you need] broader shoulders to be able to carry the fact that everyone is looking at you to deliver. I’m a lot more accountable now than I was when I first started, and as my team grows I have a lot more to represent for them,’ she says.
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‘Sotheby’s is one of the oldest auction houses in the world, and you’re working with the best in class. That means you have to step up.’
It’s a challenge Fatemi has embraced wholeheartedly, yet one she believes must be shared if the industry is to truly evolve – including recognising the realities women navigate, from motherhood to menopause.
As the inaugural recipient of the Spear’s Woman of the Year Award, she hopes future winners will ‘embody integrity, boldness, tenacity and confidence’, and, more importantly, that they cultivate an awareness that, when a woman is standing on stage, they’re not just empowering fellow women but also educating men on the ‘paths we have to navigate and how, with some support, we can improve the industry and work together’.
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For Fatemi, the goal is genuine equity – in more than one sense. She believes companies should ensure women sit on company boards and occupy positions as shareholders, holding real influence over consequential decisions.
Her drive to empower more women to become independent and successful is rooted in her own experience as an Iranian woman. ‘There’s a female-led revolution in Iran and it’s the first of its kind globally,’ Fatemi explains. ‘What women are going through by not being able to sing or dance or work in the way that I do, it all makes me want to shine even brighter.’
[This feature first appeared in Spear’s Magazine issue 98. Click here to subscribe]
