Decision guide · Construction & property
What it costs to hire in construction and property by salary band, what an advert really draws, how long a search takes — and which of the three routes suits your role. Every figure comes from adverts we placed and the 3 construction & property roles we filled.
Recruiting in construction and property through us costs a flat £1,500–£3,000 +VAT at the salaries we have filled construction & property roles at (£22,500–£55,000), against £4,500–£11,000 at a 20% agency fee, with no commission. Our 3 filled construction & property roles took a median of 44 days from brief to hire, against 42 days across all 46 roles we have filled. Advertising it yourself starts at £399 +VAT: across 70 construction & property adverts we placed, the median drew 18.5 applications in 28 days (31 across all sectors) and 19% drew fewer than five.
| Option | What you pay at £40,000, the middle of the construction & property roles we have filled | What you get | Best when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advertise it yourself | £399–£599 +VAT per advert | Your advert across the major job boards for 28 days; you screen, interview and chase. Construction & property adverts drew a median of 18.5 applications. | The role is a common site or office title in your region, you can check cards, tickets and project values yourself, and you have the time to call applicants back the same day — construction candidates rarely wait. |
| Premium Hire | £2,000 +VAT (£30,000 – £44,999) | A recruiter advertises, headhunts and screens, and presents a shortlist. Our construction & property median: 44 days. | You need a specific project type, contract value or form of contract, the candidate has to be moved from another contractor, or the role is commercial and senior enough that a percentage fee would be large. |
| Percentage agency | about £8,000 at a 20% fee | An agency searches and you pay a share of the first-year salary when someone starts. | You would rather pay nothing unless somebody starts, and the percentage is affordable at this salary. |
Fees exclude VAT. The 20% figure is the illustration used across this site, not a quote from any named agency; percentage agencies set their own rates.
| Advertised salary | Adverts | Median applications | Drew fewer than five |
|---|---|---|---|
| £20,000–£24,999 | 2 | Under the reporting floor (fewer than 8 adverts) | |
| £25,000–£29,999 | 6 | Under the reporting floor (fewer than 8 adverts) | |
| £30,000–£34,999 | 16 | 29.5 | 13% |
| £35,000–£39,999 | 8 | 34.5 | 0% |
| £40,000–£49,999 | 19 | 17 | 26% |
| £50,000–£59,999 | 9 | 14 | 22% |
| £60,000 and above | 5 | Under the reporting floor (fewer than 8 adverts) | |
| Hidden or not stated | 5 | Under the reporting floor (fewer than 8 adverts) | |
| All construction & property adverts | 70 | 18.5 | 19% |
| All sectors | 1,141 | 31 | 14% |
Source: TalentFinder UK Job Advert Response Benchmark, Q4 2026, talentfinderuk.co.uk/data/job-advert-response-benchmark — applications per 28-day advert placed through our own advertising account, 2025-10-03 to 2026-09-05. A band with fewer than 8 adverts publishes no figure. Time to first application is not measured.
| Filled roles | Median days | Middle half | Fastest | Slowest | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Construction & property | 3 | 44 | 35.5–62.5 | 27 | 81 |
| All sectors | 46 | 42 | 29.3–68.8 | 14 | 169 |
Source: TalentFinder UK Time to Fill by Sector, Q3 2026, talentfinderuk.co.uk/data/time-to-fill-uk-by-sector — days from the role opening to it closing as filled, across roles we filled and publish individually. It measures roles that were filled, so it is not a fill rate.
| Role we filled | Salary (middle of the range) | Our fixed fee | At a 20% fee | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Senior CAD Technician (Revit) — modular construction | £40,000 | £2,000 +VAT | £8,000 | £6,000 |
| Senior Estimator — bespoke joinery | £52,500 | £3,000 +VAT | £10,500 | £7,500 |
| Property Manager | £25,250 | £1,500 +VAT | £5,050 | £3,550 |
Salary is the middle of the range written on the vacancy; the fee follows the salary agreed.
Strong Revit capability is not rare. Strong Revit capability in timber frame, modular and system-built residential work, held by someone willing to commute to a rural Lancashire site, is a much smaller field. The client was open on background — architectural, engineering, modular or manufacturing design all counted — which is the only reason the search converged.
This was not a standard estimating brief. The role carried the commercial lead on site as well as the pricing — job costing, margin control, and the escalation point for site matters — with fire door compliance becoming a growing part of the work. That mix of commercial and operational responsibility narrows the field to people ready to step up rather than sideways.
Managing a residential portfolio is a job of organisation under interruption: inspections, AGMs, contractors, landlords and tenants, and the occasional out-of-hours call. The client wanted temperament as much as experience, which is a hard thing to screen for on paper and the reason 30 candidates were worked to produce three worth presenting.
Everything turns on project type and contract value. Someone excellent on £2m fit-outs is not automatically right for a £30m new build, and the CV rarely makes the difference obvious. Tickets and cards also expire quietly.
The value and type of the projects they personally ran rather than the ones their employer delivered, current cards and tickets with expiry dates, the forms of contract they have worked under, and whether they were client-side or contractor-side.
| Role | Location | Days to fill | Candidates screened |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior CAD Technician (Revit) — modular construction | Rural Lancashire, on-site — drawing from across the North West | 44 | 4 |
| Senior Estimator — bespoke joinery | East Midlands, site-based | 81 | 14 |
| Property Manager | Greater Manchester, office-based with travel | 27 | 30 |
Median 44 days, slower than our overall median of 42 across 46 filled roles. Full funnels for every one of these are on the construction & property case studies.
A vacancy of that length at the pay currently advertised for a quantity surveyor (£60,000) nets out at about £4,932 in output not produced, less the salary not paid — the cost of vacancy calculator shows every step of the sum. Before you settle on a salary, check what the local market is advertising for the same job title. Our published data covers both halves: how many applications an advert draws by sector and how long a vacancy takes to fill by sector.
| Salary band | Our flat fee | A 20% agency would bill |
|---|---|---|
| Roles up to £30,000 | £1,500 +VAT | up to £6,000 |
| £30,000 – £44,999 | £2,000 +VAT | £6,000 – £9,000 |
| £45,000 – £59,999 | £3,000 +VAT | £9,000 – £12,000 |
| £60,000 – £79,999 | £4,000 +VAT | £12,000 – £16,000 |
The construction & property roles above paid between £22,500 and £55,000, which puts most of them in the £1,500–£3,000 bands. Every band gets a five-point review of the role, a dedicated recruiter and a screened shortlist.
A flat fee by salary band, agreed before the search and unchanged by the salary you agree: Roles up to £30,000 — £1,500 +VAT; £30,000 – £44,999 — £2,000 +VAT; £45,000 – £59,999 — £3,000 +VAT; £60,000 – £79,999 — £4,000 +VAT. There is no commission when you hire, and it starts with a five-point review of your role. The construction & property roles we have filled paid between £22,500 and £55,000, so most sit in the £1,500–£3,000 range against £4,500–£11,000 at a 20% agency.
Across the 3 construction & property vacancies we have filled and publish in full, the median was 44 days from brief to hire — slower than our overall median of 42 days across 46 roles. The fastest took 27 days and the slowest 81. We publish the slow ones too.
No. The fee is fixed by salary band before the search starts and does not move with the salary agreed. That is the whole point of the model, and the saving against a percentage grows as the role gets more senior.
The value and type of the projects they personally ran rather than the ones their employer delivered, current cards and tickets with expiry dates, the forms of contract they have worked under, and whether they were client-side or contractor-side.
Advertise when the title is common in your region and you can verify cards, tickets and project history yourself. Use a recruiter when the role depends on a particular project type or contract value, or the right person is currently on another contractor's site. The figures on this page show what construction adverts drew by salary and how long our construction searches took.
The value and type of projects they personally ran rather than the ones their employer delivered, current cards and tickets with expiry dates, the forms of contract they have worked under, and whether their experience is client-side or contractor-side.
Yes. Tell us what the advert drew and we will say plainly whether a search would change the outcome. If the advert runs its full 28 days without a hire, the full advert fee is credited against Premium Hire for the same role (claim within 60 days of close, one credit per role).
Across 70 construction & property adverts we placed between 2025-10-03 and 2026-09-05, the median advert drew 18.5 applications over 28 days, the middle half drew between 8.3 and 40, and 19% drew fewer than five. The median across all 1,141 UK adverts was 31.
Yes, and sometimes you should. A £399 +VAT advert puts the role across the major job boards and sends you the applications. It took a median of 16 candidates worked to make one hire in construction & property, so if somebody in your business genuinely has those hours, advertising is the cheaper route and we will say so.
Tell us the role and we will tell you what it costs and how long it is likely to take — using the 3 we have already filled in this sector, not a guess.
See Premium Hire Talk to a recruiter
Or call 0161 327 2895. Prefer to advertise it yourself? Post a job online from £399 +VAT, or write the advert first with our free job advert generator.
Cost comparison
A salary-band table of what a UK contingency agency bills at 15%, 20% and 25% against the published flat fees for the same search, from £30,000 to £75,000 — with the three cases where the percentage is still the better buy.
Cost comparison
Worked figures for a £45,000 UK hire — what a contingency agency bills at 15%, 20% and 25%, what the published flat fees are, what the real difference is once you count your own screening time, and the three situations where the agency is the better buy.
Benchmarks
The median role we filled took 42 days from brief to close, but the spread runs from 14 to 169 days. The per-sector breakdown, what actually drives the difference, and how to read a time-to-fill promise.
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