Office construction across London has risen to its highest level since the financial crisis – rising 18% in the six months to 30 September – and it’s not just property developers benefitting; recruiters too are reaping the rewards.

In its latest London Office Crane Survey, released this week, professional services firm Deloitte’s real estate arm found 11.1m sq ft of space under construction across central London over the past six months.

Leo Gee, associate director at real estate and property recruiter Blayze Group, tells Recruiter construction vacancies have been “flooding in” as the amount of work drives up demand, specifically for people with high-end commercial and residential experience. 

John Forbes, director of multi sector specialist Scorpos Recruitment, agrees, he told Recruiter the company's construction division has seen a 30% to 50% increase in vacancies.

Specialist recruiter Argyll Scott’s new director of commerce & industry Ben Westwood tells Recruiter that with widespread skills shortages, particularly for senior project managers, clients are forced to increase salaries or recruit from talent pools outside of London. 

John Clarkson, head of construction, infrastructure & property at multi-specialist recruiter Cobalt Recruitment, says the boom is seeing expat candidates return from overseas. 

He told Recruiter during the recession a lot of candidates had moved to locations in Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East to work on “big, new-build” projects but were now looking to return to the UK, although they are still in short supply.

The upshot is clients are a lot more open to hiring those people with overseas experience compared to during the recession, when clients wanted people with recent UK and London-specific experience, he added.

Gee says talent retention is also on clients’ minds, driving demand for the Blayze Group’s talent services offering.

The talent services aspect not only aids clients in search and selection but onboarding and retention, thereby helping reduce attrition rates, Gee explained.

Also, he added, “we have invested heavily in our systems and training programmes to ensure our consultants are working as effectively and proactively as they can be”.

• If you work in the construction & property sector, are you seeing a similar picture? What about outside London? The Comment box is at the bottom of the page. Sorry for the glitch but just scroll right down and share your opinions!