Young professionals salary survey

The property industry is fighting with deteriorating pay conditions and diminishing bonuses. However, the survey reveals that youngsters in property have fared better than their older colleagues over the last 12 months.

‘More senior respondents are more likely to have had a pay reduction this year, interestingly they expect more of a pay reduction as well,’ says Peter Moore, managing director of Macdonald & Company.

Those at a relatively early stage in their career typically show the highest levels of salary increases.

It is, however, important to note that younger respondents with fewer years’ experience are starting from a much lower base salary that their older, more experienced colleagues.

‘Percentage terms are quite misleading,’ points out Nick Thomlinson, senior partner at Knight Frank. Ten per cent of 10% of £30,000 is less than 10% of a higher salary.
Younger people in property were also less pessimistic about the year ahead. Thirty five per cent of assistants and trainees predicted they would receive a pay cut, whereas 43% of senior staff expected a pay reduction.

‘Our view is it’s very important to look after our talented people and “stars of the future” at every level within the business,’ explains Atisreal’s chief executive, Mark England, in response to these results.

Sean Tompkins, RICS chief operations officer, agrees. ‘They need to be well looked after,’ he says. ‘This way the sector will keep its best talent and we won’t suffer a skills gap or lack of managerial talent 10 years from now.’

Read the full article and view the graphs in Property Week The 2009 salary census: The RICS and Macdonald & Company UK Salary, Rewards and Attitudes Survey.

The 10th annual RICS and Macdonald & Company UK Salary, Rewards and Attitudes Survey was completed online by 10,476 UK surveying professionals between 16 December 2008 and 6 February 2009.

For more details and to view the executive summary of the survey go to: Macdonald & Company.

A full report and online statistics package are available upon request. A full report package combined with the online statistics package is available at a cost of £399.