Property Recruitment Mid-Year: What's Happening?

If you've felt like hiring has gone quiet this year, you're not imagining it. But "quiet" doesn't mean "nothing's happening", it means the market's being a lot more deliberate about who it wants, and that's the more interesting story.

The headline numbers

The ONS Vacancy Survey tells the story plainly. UK vacancy estimates fell to 712,000 in April to June 2026, down 0.9% on the quarter and 2.5% on the year. Real estate has been hit harder than almost any other sector: real estate vacancies were down 16.1% on the quarter and 17.5% on the year — one of the steepest declines of any industry tracked. That's not a blip either — it follows a 19.7% quarterly fall reported back in the February to April window and a 13.4% quarterly, 28.1% annual fall reported in the June release. Real estate has been at or near the top of the "biggest decline" list for months running.

Zoom out and the wider labour market backs up what it feels like on the ground too: vacancies overall hit their lowest level since February to April 2021 earlier in the year, and the unemployed-people-per-vacancy ratio has been sitting around 2.5, up from 2.0 a year earlier — meaning there are simply more people chasing each open role than there were 12 months ago.

What we're seeing on the ground

The stats back up what we're living day to day. The market is generally struggling, and hiring itself has gone quiet, but where it's happening, it's considered. Employers are being selective about which roles they'll actually invest in, and right now that's overwhelmingly the commercially driven ones — roles that bring in new business rather than protect what's already there. We see it constantly in proptech: BDM roles are coming thick and fast, but account manager vacancies have all but dried up. Growth is being funded; retention isn't.

That's a striking shift, and it's worth sitting with. Businesses are backing new revenue over protecting existing relationships which tells you a lot about where confidence really sits.

Candidates are cautious too, and for good reason. The sales pipeline is growing and growing, but completions aren't keeping pace — and recent headlines on gazundering and house price drops aren't helping settle anyone's nerves. Add in the fact that new entrants cost employers roughly the same as experienced hires thanks to minimum wage increases, and you get a market where fresh talent simply isn't being attracted in. Why would it be, when there's nowhere for it to land?

The self-employed model keeps drawing good people out of the traditional candidate pool, which shrinks it further for everyone else. And ironically, the growing number of recruitment agents in the market hasn't eased that scarcity — clients still want the trusted advisors who've been around, who understand the sector and hold the right relationships, not just another name in their inbox.

Lettings has its own hesitancy right now. Questions over commission clawbacks following the Renters' Rights Act are making people think twice about moving roles at all — nobody wants to jump into a new position and then find their OTE or commission structure isn't what they thought.

Consolidation is adding another layer of nervousness on top of all this. Candidates weighing up a move are increasingly wary of both directions. Go corporate, and there's a real fear that as these groups keep growing, the people-first culture gets diluted and it becomes all about the bottom line rather than the individual. Go independent instead, and there's a nagging worry that the business you've just joined to escape a corporate culture ends up selling to the exact same corporate a year or two down the line. Neither path feels safe right now, and that's making people sit tight rather than take the risk either way.

Put it all together and you get employers looking for unicorns — and the unicorns, sensibly, staying exactly where they are. The good people aren't sat on job boards. They're heads-down and cautious, and they'll move for the right opportunity — real progression, honest pay, and leadership that develops people rather than just manages them.

The generational shift underneath all of this

This all lands alongside a genuine attitude shift in the workforce, particularly from Gen Z. We could be looking at four generations working alongside each other for the first time within the next decade — each with different expectations of pay, flexibility, and progression. That's not a side note to the hiring story, it's central to it: the roles employers are struggling to fill are often the ones where those expectations clash hardest with what's actually on offer.

The backdrop

None of this is happening in isolation. The Renters' Rights Act came into force in May 2026, reshaping compliance demands on property managers and negotiators alike. Employment Rights Act reforms are rolling out through the year, with a new Fair Work Agency launching in April with real inspection powers. Whatever else is going on, compliance literacy is no longer optional for anyone being hired into this sector.

A new layer of political uncertainty

And just as the sector was starting to find its feet, Westminster has thrown another curveball. Andy Burnham became Prime Minister on 20 July 2026, succeeding Keir Starmer, and one of his first cabinet decisions was to bring back Angela Rayner as Housing Secretary — the role she held until stepping down last September. It's a genuine return to the brief for her, and she takes over house buying reform plans first announced by her predecessor. For a sector that thrives on certainty, a new PM and a returning Housing Secretary within days of each other is exactly the kind of change that makes both employers and candidates pause before making a move.

What does the rest of the year look like?

Right now, it's too uncertain to say. Summer is generally quieter for hiring anyway, but many companies will be looking at hires during this time to get ahead of the competition and begin conversations and searches whilst everyone else is putting it on hold.

Come September we could be looking at a much more positive market, IF Andy and Angela make the right choices for the sector over the next few weeks.