Building boom boosts architects’ salaries

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By Marguerite Lazell


It’s been a bonanza year for architectural salaries already, and fees are set to rise as a result. Naming your price is now the order of the day as the skills shortage begins to bite.

Massively inflated salary increases, staff head-hunted by one firm from another, golden hellos for new recruits — it seems that in 2007, architects are moving into the same league as lawyers, IT consultants and City financiers as practices compete for the best staff.
Delwar Hossain, managing-director of recruitment agency Adrem, says: “Work goes from famine to feast, and at the moment it’s a feast. Practices are trying pretty much anything to hold onto staff, and for good reason. Some are even giving golden hellos.”
This increase in demand for high-calibre staff can only mean one thing: salaries are rocketing. And this, say seasoned observers, will lead to a significant rise in fees. Former BDP chair Richard Saxon thinks its going to be a painful realisation for clients. “Clients’ ideas about fees are relatively inelastic,” he says. “Construction costs are rising ahead of inflation, but not as fast as salaries — it provides a cushion, but not enough.”
Paul Hyett, former president of the RIBA and chair of Ryder HKS, believes it will affect architectural competitions. “It will impact heavily on this stupid obsession with unpaid competitions,” he says. “If people can demand proper salaries, that means [practices] can’t give away work for free. Why should three, four or five practices work for no fee when we’ve got a shortage of architects?” (...)

Fonte BDonline