Macdonald & Company, a leading recruitment consultancy for the property industry, has launched the first Middle East Salary Survey for the real estate sector that points to an overall salary increase experienced by the sector, particularly in the real estate consultancies (14.5%), financial services (15.9%) and contracting sectors (22.1%).
This year, the company has broadened the scope of the survey to include its salary-based assessment of the property market across the GCC states, as well as current statistics regarding remuneration and packages, current job satisfaction levels and the top reasons why candidates leave companies.
In 2006, the unprecedented growth in the real estate market prompted Macdonald & Co. to publish a four-page salary guide in an effort to set an industry benchmark on compensation packages and illustrate the prevailing industry statistics. This year’s survey reveals an average rise of 14.2% in salaries across all disciplines in the
“We are in a unique position as the number one property recruitment specialist to provide previously unknown information to the real estate industry through this Salary Survey,†said Matthew Taylor, International Director, Macdonald & Co. speaking at the Cityscape Dubai exhibition this week.
“Employers who take time to study the results of the survey will be rewarded with a unique insight into the current position of the market not only in terms of remuneration but also the drivers for changing employer together with bonus, benefits and other trends.
Macdonald & Co., the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), and Cityscape Market Intelligence Service (CMIS) have worked together to produce a salary survey in an effort to create an industry standard for the highly unregulated real estate market. Macdonald & Company commissioned David Burton and Associates, a leading research consultancy, to analyse and interpret the data gathered from the questionnaires.
Highlights of the survey also revealed that 94% of employees have received at least one additional benefit, stating health insurance as the most popular incentive among respondents at 80%, followed by annual travel expenses and flights, which was awarded to 63% of the survey participants and performance related bonus which was received by 50% of the subjects.
Job satisfaction in the GCC is high as compared to other regions of the world with 79% of the employees expressing that they are ‘fairly satisfied’ compared to 21% who answered ‘not very’ or ‘not at all’ satisfied. The survey showed the three top reasons for employees leaving their company to be: better salary (74%), better career prospects (68%) and better benefit package (47%).
The Salary Survey mirrors the boom in the real estate market for property professionals in the
