UAE real estate salaries suffer 30% cuts

MONEY MATTERS: Salaries across the real estate industry in the UAE have fallen 30 percent in 2009, according to a new report.

Salaries in the UAE real estate sector have fallen by as much as 30 percent amid the impact of the economic downturn in 2009, a new report has revealed.

In its annual Cost of Living report, Kershaw Leonard said the property industry has bore the brunt of salary decreases in the country.

"As one might expect, there have been few increases across the market over the past year, and a number of significant decreases," the report said.

Kershaw Leonard noted that salaries in the HR, retail and legal sectors have generally remained the same while in the finance sector, salaries have seen small rises, which is attributed to the field gaining ever-increasing importance as companies look to tighten cash flow.

It added that the sectors that have seen the largest drops in salary in 2009 were real estate, sales and marketing, and media.

The report, cited by Ameinfo, said that Western expatriates have seen bigger drops in their salaries than their Arab and Asian counterparts, in the latter two sectors.

"In real estate, the drops have averaged 30 percent across the ethnicity spectrum, and a number of companies have moved away from the high basic model to a more commission-based one," the report added.

But some sectors have weathered the storm, Kershaw Leonard said, with some engineering positions seeing increases of up to 25 percent.

At the top echelons, the report said there had been relatively little change from 2008.

Arab, Asian and Western CEOs and MDs earn an average of between AED88,000-138,000 per month, while GMs earn between AED44,000-69,000.

In the media field, the report said average salaries for Arab creative directors have fallen from between AED27,500-46,000 in 2008, to AED20,500-46,000 in 2009.

For Asian expats this has gone from between AED15,000-19,000 to AED11,250-19,000 in 2009 while Western expats have also seen a drop, from between AED22,000-33,000 in 2008, to AED16,500-33,000 this year.

Kershaw Leonard's report added that IT directors have seen their salaries increase over the past 12 months with Arab and Western executives seeing monthly averages go from AED40,000-60,000 to AED50,000-70,000, while Asian directors have seen average increases from AED35,000-55,000 to AED38,000-60,000.

"In the UAE, where the economy runs on a predominantly imported workforce, it may take some time, once the market picks up again, to see the effects of redundancies over the last year," the report added.

"This is particularly relevant in the construction industry where...some of the top talent has been more willing to relocate rather than take a reduced salary."

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READERS' COMMENTS

Increases are minor
Posted by fatihermihan, Abu Dhabi, UAE on Sunday 1 November 2009 at 12:24 UAE time


As it was discussed before on 27th October in the article about 7% pay rise in 2010, we must repeat our objectives again here for this article as well. There is no significant increase for salaries in this year and there is no positive sign for 2010 either. People wish not to be laid of instead of expecting salary increase. People are trying to keep their job in their hands and to follow the stability. Who will talk about the realistic topics rather than estimations one day?

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