Wednesday Market Insights: The Talent Pipeline Is Under Pressure. Is Your Strategy Keeping Up?
The Read
In this week’s edition, two very different areas of the market are pointing towards a similar challenge: employers aren't simply struggling to find people. They're competing for increasingly specific combinations of skills, qualifications and sector knowledge and in some areas, the traditional talent pipeline isn't keeping pace.
In Real Estate Technology & Business Transformation, property businesses are competing with banks, consultancies and technology firms for professionals who can combine technical capability with an understanding of the property world.
In Building Surveying, the challenge looks different. An ageing chartered workforce, a constrained MRICS pipeline and barriers to progressing AssocRICS talent are contributing to shortages that employers are already experiencing on live searches.
Different markets. Different causes. Similar question for employers:
If the talent you need isn't entering the market quickly enough, how does your hiring strategy need to change?
Market Signal: Competition for specialist tech talent is intensifying
Demand for technology talent isn't new. The intensity of that demand is.
London's professional vacancies are forecast to grow 13.5% in 2026, while IT vacancies are up 26.1% and Development & Engineering roles are up 32.4%.
For Technology & Business Transformation teams, Adam Parry sees the pressure most clearly around professionals who can bridge two worlds: data specialists who understand property and investment data, systems professionals familiar with platforms such as Yardi or MRI, and technology leaders capable of translating between operational property teams and technical functions.
The challenge is that Real Estate isn't competing for these people in isolation. Banks, consultancies, technology businesses and software vendors are drawing from many of the same talent pools.
And that means the hiring proposition matters. Salary remains important, but career development, flexibility, culture and the speed and clarity of the recruitment process can increasingly influence where sought-after technology professionals choose to go.
What this means for hiring managers: look beyond salary and consider the complete proposition you're taking to market and how quickly you're able to take it there.
Coming next week: Adam Parry takes a deeper look at the competition for Technology & Business Transformation talent and what Real Estate businesses can do differently.
Market Signal: Where have all the MRICS Building Surveyors gone?
Building Surveying is experiencing a different version of the same talent challenge.
RICS's 2025 Surveying Skills Report found 87% of respondents said skills shortages were affecting their part of the profession, with Building Surveying among the disciplines particularly affected.
It's something Ashleigh Pearce sees directly. Cobalt's Building Surveying desk placed around 40 surveyors last year, yet there are still searches where the MRICS professional an employer wants is extremely difficult to find and in some locations, the available pool can be particularly limited.
An ageing and retiring chartered workforce is one factor. But the pipeline replacing it is equally important.
Ashleigh is seeing AssocRICS professionals command increasingly competitive salaries, while progressing to MRICS requires further experience, mentoring and employer support through the chartership process. For teams already operating at capacity, providing that development can itself become difficult.
The result is a cycle: employers need more chartered professionals, while the market needs existing professionals to be given the support required to become chartered.
What this means for hiring managers: workforce planning may increasingly need to include developing the talent already in the pipeline, rather than relying solely on experienced MRICS hires entering the market.
Coming soon: Ashleigh Pearce explores what's behind the shortage of MRICS Building Surveyors and what employers can realistically do about it.
Map The Gap
We know where the shortages are. But do we know what's causing them?
These two markets illustrate why talking about "the Built Environment skills gap" as one problem can only take us so far.
A shortage caused by cross-sector competition for technology professionals requires a different response to one caused by an ageing workforce and constrained professional qualification pipeline.
That's exactly what Cobalt's Map the Gap campaign, in collaboration with BE News, is looking to understand.
We're gathering insight from both employers and professionals across the Built Environment to identify where skills shortages really sit, what's driving them and what could actually help close them.
Whether you're hiring into the sector or building your own career within it, your experience helps us build a clearer picture.
Take the 3-minute Map the Gap survey and help shape the findings.
From the Desk
Talent conversations aren't only about attraction. What happens once people join a business matters too.
Recently, some of our Cobalt High Flyers travelled to Hvar, Croatia, as part of our annual High Achievers trip recognising colleagues from across the business for exceptional performance, hard work and contribution.
From time together as a team to some incredible Croatian views, the trip was an opportunity to recognise the people who have gone above and beyond over the past year.
And attention is already turning to the next one, with colleagues across Cobalt UK, Cobalt US, Cobalt Deutschland and Comanos working towards qualification for our next High Achievers trip in Cape Town, South Africa.
Congratulations again to everyone who qualified for Croatia.
Thanks to our contributors, Adam Parry -Recruitment Consultant, Technology & Business Transformation, Ashleigh Pearce- Executive Consultant, Construction and Una McGuinness, Fractional Chief Marketing Officer
