Salaries in construction and realty to remain flat this year

Salaries in the real estate and construction sector are likely to remain flat this year and any hikes that happen will depend on a case-by-case basis, say analysts.

"I think the property and financial services sector may well remain flat during the coming year. There may be isolated cases of salary reviews where a particular skill or knowledge set is required," Matthew Carter, Managing Director at McArthur Murray, told Emirates Business.

According to Wassim Karkabi, Partner, Regional Practice Leader Emea, Industrial Practice at Stanton Chase: "Real estate and construction firms involved in residential and commercial continue to suffer."

"As projects are scarce and companies focus their business outside of the UAE, construction companies have shifted their attention outside of the country. This is not anticipated to change to a large extent over 2010. Some exceptions may occur, but there will not be too many such opportunities to cause the market to shift," he said.

"We don't expect any more cuts in salaries; companies will either keep, or fire. Those that have reached this point are now navigating at their limits, where additional cuts will no longer help," said Karkabi.

With a lot of restructuring happening in the beginning of last year, analysts now believe that real estate in the country is stabilising and property prices and the rents have shown consistent stabilisation over the past few months.

However, any major hikes in salaries in this particular sector has been ruled out this year as realty is in the recovery mode and many people involved in the sector were paying more to begin with.

"Some firms were already paying more than was realistic or accurate for their business model," said an analyst.

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