• Home
• /
• Business

Salaries in ME real estate sector rise 14.2 per cent

DUBAI — Salaries in the Middle East's real estate sector saw an average rise of 14.2 per cent across all disciplines in the year to August 2007, according to respondents of the first Middle East survey for the real estate sector.

This compares with an average salary increase worldwide of five per cent over the same period, said Matthew Taylor, international director, MacDonald & Company, a recruitment consultancy focusing solely on the property industry.

Speaking to Khaleej Times, he said that the only other country that has seen comparable salary increases in the real estate sector to that experienced by the Middle East is China, where salaries rose on average by 15 per cent.

The survey, commissioned by McDonald & Company, Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and Cityscape Market Intelligence Service (CMIS), shows that salaries for real estate consultancies rose by 14.5 per cent, financial services by 15.9 per cent and contracting sectors by 22.1 per cent.

David Burton and Associates, a research consultancy, analysed and interpreted the data gathered from the questionnaires. There were 860 respondents most of whom came from Abu Dhabi and Dubai, with the largest percentage (41 per cent) aged between 31 and 40. He also urged people from the rest of the Gulf to participate in next year's survey "to provide accurate findings within the local region".

The salary survey also reveals that 94 per cent of employees received at least one additional benefit. Eighty per cent of respondents said they have health insurance; 63 per cent said they receive annual travel expenses while 50 per cent of respondents benefit from a performance related bonus.

Job satisfaction in the GCC is high compared to other regions of the world with 79 per cent of the employees expressing that they are 'fairly satisfied' compared to 21 per cent who answered 'not very' or 'not at all' satisfied. The also shows that the three top reasons for employees leaving their company are better salary (74 per cent), better career prospects (68 per cent) and a better benefit package (47 per cent).

According to the survey, 54 per cent of respondents say they would leave their current employer for a better salary followed by career prospects at 68 per cent. It also shows that property professionals in the Middle East are more likely to move jobs than those in other regions with 54 per cent saying they would be "fairly" or "very" likely to change jobs within the next 12 months.

"This is a high figure, especially compared with the UK,' said Taylor. "The market needs to look at this," he said, adding that staff retention was an issue.

"There are things that companies can do to promote retaining staff," Taylor continued, suggesting that companies could seek a greater number of people from abroad. "Companies should look at people outside the region," he said, who can also bring added value. Some companies only want to recruit people with local experience, he explained, but this approach can be expensive.

Some 76 per cent of survey respondents were also optimistic that the next 12 months would continue to see an increase in economic activity in their chosen professional activity. Only 23 per cent expected activity to remain constant, and 1 per cent thought it would decline.