In this paper, the dielectric and piezoelectric properties of sol-gel derived and microwave sintered PZT are presented. It has been observed that the microwave sintering results in a material with a higher dielectric constant (≈1600) than that sintered by conventional methods (≈1480). It also offers a low dielectric loss tangent and improved d33. Pellets sintered by the microwave method at 1100 °C are found to have high hardness (≈1460 MPa) on the Vickers hardness scale with a theoretical density of ≈94% in comparison with that sintered by the conventional method (i.e. ≈980 MPa and ≈84%). From a hysteresis study, the remanent polarization (Pr) and coercive field (Ec) of the microwave sintered PZT are observed to be 340 mC m-2 and 10 kV cm-1, respectively. The value of Ec in the microwave sintered sample is low and this property is desirable for device fabrication of PZT-based smart structures.