Howard has over 30 years of involvement in the Australian property industry, as an analyst, investor, and fund manager. He is now a professional company director and consultant for the property funds industry. Howard co-founded Property Investment Research Pty Ltd (PIR) in 1989 which during the 1990s was considered a leading researcher of both listed and unlisted property funds. In 1988, Howard was instrumental in establishing the fund's management business of APN Property Group Limited. During this period he was responsible for the establishment and operations of a number of funds investing both directly and indirectly in real estate.
Howard is currently a non-executive director of the ASX-listed APN Property Group Limited (APD) and is also a non-executive director of APN Funds Management Limited, the responsible entity for APN Industria REIT (ADI) and APN Convenience Retail REIT (AQR). Until July 2017, APN Funds Management Limited was also a responsible entity for Generation Healthcare REIT (GHC).