Articles From the Team
Don't be Conservative about your conveyancing move!
Don't be Conservative about your conveyancing move!
With the recent death of Maggie Thatcher and George Osbourne’s budgets being released just 3 weeks ago, it’s unsurprising that politics is at the forefront of everybody’s mind.
Whilst the Iron Lady was arguably one of the most controversial Prime Minsters to have been elected, it is a known fact that she shaped the property market of today. With her privatisation of social housing and right to buy schemes she without a doubt “funded the growth in home ownership”.
However taking a closer look at today’s situation, what is going on in the housing market? Well it seems that the Conservative mission to invest and assists new homeowners is still there. With First Buy, New Buy and the return of the 95% LTV mortgage it seems that not only an investment has been made but a real push to stimulate the economy through the housing market is well on it’s way. Not long after Osbourne’s budget, shares in house builders increased in value and I for one saw an increase in requirements.
As a specialist within residential property recruitment, I will be the first one to say that I doubt we will ever witness a return to the “golden days” where firms were recruiting non stop and jobs were ten a penny. However I will say that it is getting better. The Land Registry statistics are consistently showing an increase in completions per month by the “big players” such as Countrywide, My Home Move and O’Neill Patients and we are receiving new instructions for Conveyancers to join firms, daily.
The biggest change I can see is that unfortunately salaries have not recovered as much as the job flow has. Firms are still able to pay around £25,000 for a Conveyancer with Solicitors only just pushing up to the £30’s. However what I will say is that there is a demand and it is becoming harder and harder to find good quality candidates that are able to handle a caseload from inception though to completion and use a case management system. This to me screams out that Firms will need to increase their salary brackets!
There seems to be a real stigma around working within volume conveyancing which I have always struggled to understand. Why? With Lenders only instructing firms that can provide a service inline with their strict SLAs and moreover have the capacity to deal with their volume it seems to be that the face of conveyancing is rapidly changing. Smaller firms are no longer able to compete with the high levels of service and reasonable costs provided by these conveyancing specialist firms. Moreover they are unable to gain QCS accreditation.
My advice is; if you are working within residential property and you have been a bit cautious about making the move in this market, don’t be anymore! Conveyancing is most definitely picking up and BCL Legal has outstanding relationships with a number of top firms, developers and volume conveyancing firms nationally. As one of the few agencies that have a specialist in residential property recruitment, we are without a doubt best set to market and represent you effectively.
If you have previously disregarded opportunities at volume firms, then reconsider. Go and meet with these firms as they are able to offer higher salaries, bonuses and brilliant benefits packages.
If you have been out for a few years and are considering returning to the sector, then this is the time to do it. With such a demand for good candidates, if you can demonstrate you have the ability and are wiling to be flexible on your salary to a certain extent, then we can help.
For more information please visit our website BCL Legal.