Middle East property execs top global pay poll

Property professionals in the region earn 40 percent more than the global average and pocketed a further 5.9 percent pay hike in 2010, a poll by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and Macdonald & Company found.

Professionals in the region earned, on average, $132,046 in 2010, the poll found, a rise of 5.9 percent on the previous year and outstripping their peers in Europe, Asia and South Africa

By comparison, workers in the UK earned an average of $83,055, with those in Europe taking home $98,204. In Asia, pay packets reached $98,615 and in South Africa, a more modest $54,411.

Some 44 percent of property professionals in the Middle East also said they received bonuses last year, valued on average at $21,015.

Ben Waddilove, director of Macdonald & Company’s Dubai office, said he was “surprised” by the result but attributed it to the region’s higher cost of living.

“The cost of rent and cost of living is still higher [in the Middle East], despite the downturn,” he told Arabian Business.

Despite the payoff, property professionals in the Middle East were most likely to switch jobs with 31 percent admitting they planned a career change in the next 12 months, compared to 20 percent in the UK and 19 percent in Europe.

Waddilove said this was to be expected as the region was a still very much a frontier market.

“I think there is always a high turnover… People do move around too much in this region, it is the nature of the region,” he said.

Amid ongoing civil unrest across the Middle East, those surveyed were divided on how the region’s property market would perform over the next 12 months.

Twelve percent expected activity to decrease, compared to 44 percent who expected a rise in business during the period.

The poll surveyed 13,150 professionals working in property markets in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, UK and South Africa.