JEDDAH: The job market for overseas property professionals is hotting up in the MENA region as recruitment demand is increasing again. Rakia Real Estate, an investment arm of the UAE government, recently announced it is looking for agents to market and sell a new project on Al Marjan Island. And Ben Waddilove, director at property recruitment company Macdonald & Co., said this is a continuing trend. "We have witnessed continued hiring from real estate companies particularly in the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and especially from government-related institutions working on affordable housing and infrastructure projects," he said. "The longer-term outlook for recruitment is positive as regime changes in the wider Arab world unfold and oil price remains high providing budget surpluses for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries." "The current employment market is fairly balanced. We also conducted an International Salary Survey Comparison, which cited Middle East salaries as being around 30-40 percent higher than in the UK and Europe," he added. Recruitment website Bayt.com also believes that the job market as a whole is improving after a flurry of redundancies in the property sector in 2009 and 2010. Lama Ataya, chief marketing officer at Bayt.com, said many of the professionals displaced in those years have been able to find employment again as the sector picks up.
