Competition is hotting up again post-recession for skilled property industry professionals, according to Sally Chacatte, group human resources director for global property business Knight Frank.

And as the competition for talent rises, some property businesses are “building war chests for bonuses”, Chacatte told Recruiter.

“A lot of our competitors are targeting us right now [to recruit staff],” she said.

Despite the downturn’s rugged impact on the property market, the tightened economy actually benefited many property businesses by forcing them to reinforce existing “checks and balances” that were in place for hiring, Chacatte said.

“In the heady days before the downturn, there was so much business, we were recruiting, recruiting, recruiting!” she said. “At one point, we had 300 vacancies.”

To encourage new talent into the industry, Knight Frank are joining forces with other firms, through a property human resources directors’ forum, to promote property as a profession. Knight Frank has also held a joint graduate recruitment event with competitor Savills to introduce potential recruits to organisations with different cultures.

Rupert Stuart-Baker, joint owner of Beach Baker Property Recruitment, told Recruiter: “Things are a bit better, though we are still not back to where it was before the recession.” The investment market was leading the way, he added, while demand for candidates involved in buying, selling and leasing was still slack. There was particularly strong demand for property managers, he added, with a lack of good candidates already evident. London and the South were the strongest performing regions.

Stuart-Baker welcomed the property industry’s efforts to improve the image of the profession and to attract new talent. “I think that graduates and younger surveyors especially would have got disillusioned in the latter part of 2008 and in 2009 because of a lack of career opportunities within the industry.”

Matthew Squirrell, managing director of niche property recruiter Dove & Hawk, told Recruiter: “Companies have stopped being scared and have started to expand.”

However, he added there was a difficulty in finding staff with good people skills. “Estate agency is a people business. You only have 15 minutes to make an impression and get to know someone; otherwise they are straight off to a competitor. Some graduates have the ’head skills’, but, in terms of face-to-face experience, that’s where they fall down.”