Money smart women: Bayleys Canterbury residential investment division head Angela Webb
by Metropol | October 1, 2025 9:07 am
Money is one of the last great taboos. Many of us don’t like to talk about the gritty detail – what we make and what we do with it. But for Angela Webb, who heads up Bayleys Canterbury’s residential investment division, talking money with her team is always on the agenda.
Angela holds regular one-on-one meetings with her all-female team and finances are a key part of those conversations. They have very open discussions about how they manage their money and their individual goals – whether that’s travelling, buying property or paying off a credit card – nothing is off the table.
“They all know their basic monthly costs and I encourage them all to have emergency funds so they can live without income for up to three months,” says Angela. “Agents are taught so much on how to sell, but nothing on how to manage your money.”
It was during one of these meetings, salesperson Charlotte Heaslip remembers Angela asking her “Right, when are you buying a house?”
For Charlotte, who was then an administrative assistant, home ownership seemed out of reach. “I was 21 at the time and I thought she [Angela] had lost the plot,” she recalls. “I had KiwiSaver, but other than that I had approximately $500 in my savings account.”
But Angela’s strong guidance and support helped Charlotte make decisions. Within a few months of that conversation, she had bought her first house.
Angela’s team all know their term deposits from their investment funds. Yet that is just part of a bigger picture. Angela also supports them in their careers and guides them to think about their goals, so they are working towards them, not drifting along.
“Angela never talks to you about things in a judgy way,” says Grace Bruere who has been on Team Webb for two years. “She just explains things to you.”
“She is a mentor, friend, therapist and huge motivator for me,” says Charlotte.
Financial freedom
Angela herself realised that with financial independence comes freedom. As a horse-mad young woman, she spent a year working near London at a livery stable she got free riding lessons during the day and in the evenings the horses would be prepared for their owners to turn up and ride them. She realised at that point that she wanted to be one of the professional women from London, turning up to ride after work, rather than one of the stable workers.
“I thought right, I need to make some money,” she says.
She returned to New Zealand, studied architectural design and then headed to Dublin to work for an architectural firm. It was whilst working in Ireland, during the Celtic boom, that she bought her first properties in New Zealand – sight unseen. At the time she was also reading widely on financial management and investment.
After returning to New Zealand 20 years ago, she began working in real estate and has been with Bayleys for the past 13 years.
Empowering women
Angela has worked under some great leaders, first during her time in Dublin and later at Bayleys, where Pete Whalan became an important mentor who greatly shaped her career. She’s learnt the importance of good workplace culture and the way in which strong leaders can guide and manage their team. “These experiences have shaped my own approach to leadership as a woman,” she says.
She is now firmly focused on supporting and mentoring other women, helping her team navigate their careers in what is still, largely, a male world. They often encounter attitudes that are very different to those faced by their male colleagues. Like dealing with people at open homes who can be dismissive or even rude. “Being in real estate means you’ll occasionally be treated badly by people who don’t see the value in what we do,” she explains.
“And as a young woman, you can face the added challenge of people thinking it’s okay to speak to you that way. I teach my team how to disarm those situations so they don’t upset the whole energy of the open home.”
“One thing I noticed, for example, is that all the trainers are male,” says Angela. “But men can be more direct than women when it comes to things like negotiations. Women really need to be better than men at reading the room and learn when to push but also when not to overstep the mark. It’s a fine art.”
These are the kind of things that Angela helps her team to manage with good mentorship and guidance rather than stifling personalities. She encourages a strong culture in the team and they do fun things like swimming with dolphins, celebrating their successes and are not afraid to show a little emotion when something gets them down.
“I have been told I am too soft in the past,” says Angela. “It annoyed me the first time someone said that, but later I realised I don’t mind being called soft as I get results. For me that is more important. I don’t see tears as a failing or a weakness, it’s just a way of handling stress or frustration that comes with business. We cry, we move on and often we have a laugh about it a few days later.”
Listening to Angela’s team talking about their careers and their financial goals – it’s clear, these young women are going places.
“Being part of an all female team means a workplace with encouragement and support, where everyone is given the opportunity to grow,” says Hayley Hedworth, business manager. “Angela’s leadership fosters this culture and inspires confidence. We all feel empowered to succeed.”
Thanks to Angela’s mentorship, the future looks bright for the Team Webb women. They are utterly professional, utterly female and utterly independent.
Tips for the first home buyer
So you want to buy your first home?
We asked Angela for some tips.
- Look beyond the suburbs you already know and be prepared to start small. Your first home is a stepping stone.
- Start contributing to your KiwiSaver as early as possible. You’ll need three years of consistent payments before you can withdraw for a home deposit.
- Banks will want to see the last three months of your bank statements. So aim to have three months of sensible, clean spending before you apply. This means no obvious frittering away of money on takeaways, streaming services and AfterPay items.
- You can count flatmate income when applying for a mortgage. So this means you can consider a home where you can rent out a room to help cover costs.
- If you’re planning an OE, consider buying a property before you go. You can rent it out while you’re away, and when you return it’s still yours, to live in, sell, or keep as a rental.
- Be careful who you take property buying advice from. Unless someone has purchased in the last 5 years, their information is often out of date.
- Get mortgage preapproval before you start looking. That way you’re ready to go when you see the right place.
- Don’t be afraid to tick off some conditions before submitting your offer. Sometimes a cleaner offer can trump a higher price.
Angela Webb – 027 3491997 – angela.webb@bayleys.co.nz – Whalan and Partners Bayleys Licensed under the REA Act 2008
Source URL: https://metropol.co.nz/money-smart-women-bayleys-angela-webb/