A survey of about 150 real estate companies, conducted by a corporate advisory firm, found a strong demand for new residential real estate workers in the Southeast and Midwest United States.
“Commercial mortgage sector hiring is strongest in the Northeast; commercial ownership/services firms are most active on the West Coast, and single-family residential firms are experiencing the most activity in the Southeast and Midwest,” reported FPL Advisory Group, which provides corporate and managerial advisory services to the real estate, financial services and related industries.
The survey was divided into three groups: Commercial mortgage finance, which includes commercial mortgage-backed securities firms, commercial mortgage banks, insurance companies, and commercial banks; commercial ownership/services, which includes private developers, REIMs, REITs/REOCs, commercial brokerage firms, private equity investors, and REIT securities firms; and single-family residential, which includes home builders, residential mortgage banks and residential mortgage insurance companies.
Overall, respondents were generally optimistic about the outlook for their businesses, indicating that over the next six months they plan to increase hiring by 1 percent to 10 percent, on average, over already high demand, Ferguson Partners reported. Demand for new employees appears to be strongest in the U.S. and Europe, though nearly 20 percent of respondents with operations in Asia reported that they plan to expand their staffing levels there by 11 percent to 20 percent or more, with more than half of these planning hiring increases greater than 20 percent by yearend.
In the single-family residential market, Ferguson reported continued strong demand among homebuilders; strength in residential mortgage business persists despite drop in refinancing; hottest functions are development, construction, and sales/marketing.
FPL Advisory Group is comprised of: Ferguson Partners Ltd., which provides executive and director recruiting, CEO succession planning, and Board assessments; and FPL Associates L.P., which provides compensation consulting, management consulting, and financial advisory services.
The company is headquartered in Chicago and maintains regional offices in Dallas, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. FPL is also affiliated with Richmond & Co. in London to provide services in Europe.
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