Construction, property & the built environment
The family where the directory matters most, because hiring here is almost entirely agency-led and almost none of those agencies have any public profile. Nobody finds Fawkes & Reece by accident.
Every site below returned HTTP 200 and named construction, property or built environment work on its own pages. Checked 15 November 2026.
One thing worth knowing before you read any further. Construction is about 6.2% of UK output, and it is the one large sector whose share is roughly the same wherever you live — 8.8% in the East of England, 8.2% in Northern Ireland. Every other big sector is lopsided: London is 93% services, and manufacturing is 2% of London’s output against 9% nationally. So unlike most careers advice, nothing on this page assumes you are willing to move to London.
The job titles this family uses
- Document Controller
- Site Administrator
- Trainee Site Engineer
- Assistant Site Manager
- Assistant Quantity Surveyor
- Estimator
- Building Surveyor
- Lettings Negotiator
- Property Manager
- Block Manager
Document Controller and Site Administrator are the two most underrated entry points in the whole of UK hiring. They are office-based, they need no construction qualification, they are routinely available to anyone with decent admin skills, and they put you inside a contractor where every other role on this list becomes visible and internal moves are normal. If you want into construction and have no relevant background, start by searching those two titles and nothing else.
The warning for this family: “Surveyor” is four different professions
They share a word and nothing else. Applying for the wrong one is the most common wasted application in this industry.
- Quantity Surveyor — commercial and cost. Valuing work, pricing variations, managing the money on a contract. Lives in a site office or a head office, not on a ladder. The best-paid of the four at entry level and the one with the worst shortage.
- Building Surveyor — condition and defects. Inspecting buildings, writing schedules of dilapidations, specifying repairs, party wall work. Technical and inspection-led.
- Land or Geomatics Surveyor — measurement. Setting out, levels, instruments, coordinates. Overlaps with Site Engineer, which is the title it is more often advertised under.
- Chartered Surveyor in estate agency — valuations and agency work on property for sale or let. Commercial, not construction at all.
The second trap is “Property Manager”, which is also two jobs. In block management it means leasehold blocks, service charges, Section 20 consultations and freeholder clients — a regulated, technical, office-based career. In lettings it means tenants, inventories, repairs and inspections for a letting agent. Same title, same salary band, completely different day and different employers. The adverts rarely say which, so look at whether the company is a managing agent or a letting agent.
How people actually get in
If you are leaving school
Apprenticeships at Levels 2 and 3 are the normal route into trades and site roles, and construction runs more of them than almost any other sector. Level 2 and 3 standards cover bricklaying, carpentry, groundworks and plant, and on the technical side there is a Level 3 Construction Support Technician standard, which is the apprenticeship for the site-office and technical roles rather than the tools.
The entry you do not need an apprenticeship for is the one above: Document Controller. It is an administrative job on a construction project — controlling drawings and revisions, usually on systems like Viewpoint, Asite or Procore. Contractors hire into it with no construction background at all, and it is the single most reliable way in from the outside.
If you have a degree, or want one paid for
Surveying is a graduate profession with a chronic shortage and most people have never heard of it. That combination is unusual and it is the most useful fact on this page. The route is a RICS-accredited degree, then two or three years of structured experience, then the APC assessment to become MRICS.
Three things that are not widely known:
- You can get the degree paid for. The Level 6 Chartered Surveyor degree apprenticeship is a salaried job with the degree funded — no tuition fees and no three years out of the labour market. Major contractors and consultancies run them annually.
- You can convert into it. If your degree is in something unrelated, RICS-accredited postgraduate conversion courses exist for exactly that, usually one year full-time or two part-time. A history graduate can become a quantity surveyor; this is a well-worn path, not a stretch.
- Assistant Quantity Surveyor roles are often open to non-cognate graduates who are willing to study towards accreditation, because the shortage is real enough that contractors will train. Apply even when the advert asks for an accredited degree, and say in one line that you are willing to study.
The estate agency and property management side works differently again: it is open-entry. Lettings Negotiator and Property Manager roles generally need no qualification, hire on attitude and local knowledge, and have the Propertymark qualifications available afterwards. It is the fastest family on this page to get a first offer in, and the most variable in quality of employer.
The verified agencies
CV drop means you can hand over a CV and be done with it. Alerts means the sign-up on offer is a subscription to job emails — bookmark and sweep those instead.
Main contractors and site roles — start here
| Agency | Covers | Perm / temp | Registering & contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fawkes & Reece fawkesandreece.co.uk |
Construction and the built environment, including surveying. One of the largest construction-only agencies in the UK, with offices across the regions | Both | 0114 213 0900 (Sheffield) 0117 989 2444 (Bristol) |
| Daniel Owen danielowen.co.uk |
Built environment specialists — construction, property, civils and maintenance. Strong on trades and site roles as well as technical | Both | CV drop web.enquiries@danielowen.co.uk |
| Hays Construction & Property hays.co.uk |
Construction and property nationally. The highest vacancy volume of anyone here, and the most likely to have the entry-level office roles | Both | CV drop Alerts offered separately |
| Randstad Construction & Property randstad.co.uk |
Construction, property and surveying, nationally | Both | CV drop |
| Thorn Baker thornbaker.co.uk |
Construction, industrial and facilities management. Regional office network, and the FM side gives a second route in that most construction agencies do not have | Both | CV drop Alerts Office addresses by city, e.g. birmingham@thornbaker.co.uk |
| Setsquare setsquarerecruitment.co.uk |
Construction and property, including site management | Both | Contact form on site |
| Cityscape Recruitment cityscaperecruitment.com |
Construction staffing and recruitment, main contractor side | Both | Contact form on site |
| Carriera carriera.co.uk |
Construction, property and surveying | Both | info@carriera.co.uk |
| PSD Group psdgroup.com |
Construction and property. More weighted to mid and senior appointments than the others here | Both, temp named | CV drop london@psdgroup.com · manchester@psdgroup.com 020 7970 9700 · 0161 234 0300 |
Surveying and the technical side
| Agency | Covers | Perm / temp | Registering & contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beach Baker beachbaker.co.uk |
Property and surveying specialists, and one of the few that names quantity surveying explicitly. The right agency if surveying is the target | Both | Alerts-led — email the CV instead hello@beachbaker.co.uk |
| Calibre Search calibresearch.co.uk |
Construction, property and the built environment including surveying. Leeds and Manchester, so the natural first call across the North | Both | CV drop |
| Girling Jones girlingjones.com |
Construction, property, surveying and estimating. South West | Both | CV drop 01392 493 347 |
| RGB Recruitment rgbrec.co.uk |
Construction recruitment, naming quantity surveying, general surveying and civils. South West, long-established | Both | Alerts-led — use the job search page and email in |
| Hunter Mason huntermasonconsulting.com |
Construction recruitment consultancy, York-based, working nationally. Smaller than the others here, which tends to mean a real conversation rather than a database entry | Both | CV drop info@hunter-mason.com |
Property, estate agency and block management
A different industry from the one above, with different employers, and worth treating as a separate search even though the job titles sit on the same page.
| Agency | Covers | Perm / temp | Registering & contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deverell Smith deverellsmith.com |
Property and real estate, including residential, lettings and block management. The best-known specialist on the property side | Both | info@deverellsmith.com · 020 7291 0900 |
| Rayner Personnel raynerpersonnel.com |
Estate agency and lettings specifically — negotiators, valuers, branch and lettings staff. The agency estate agents themselves use | Both | CV drop hello@raynerpersonnel.com |
Dropped from this list on 15 November 2026: nothing. All twelve agencies originally shortlisted for this family passed, and four more were added after checking — Daniel Owen, Thorn Baker, RGB Recruitment and Hunter Mason.
Registering well
Registering puts you in a database. A conversation puts you in a consultant’s head. That matters more in construction than anywhere else, because a very large share of this industry’s hiring never reaches an advert at all — a contractor wins a job, needs people on site in three weeks, and rings the two consultants who already know who is available.
So register with four or five, then email the specialists naming one or two live roles from their own site and ask where they think you fit. Asking “where do you think I fit?” is answerable in a line and gets you a specialist’s honest read. Asking “do you have anything for me?” gets nothing.
Four things to state up front in this industry, because they are the first four things a consultant needs:
- Permanent, or contract and freelance. Site roles swing heavily to contract, office and technical roles to permanent. Say which you will take.
- Whether you drive, and how far you will travel. Sites are not near stations. This is a genuine filter here, not a formality.
- Any CSCS card, and which type. No card is fine for office roles and a blocker for site ones; the labourer’s green card is cheap and quick, and getting it before you apply removes an objection.
- Your lowest acceptable day rate or salary. Rates in this industry vary more by region than almost anything else, so give a number and let them tell you if it is wrong for your area.
The weekly sweep
Ten minutes, one bookmark folder, nothing pushed at you.
- hays.co.uk and randstad.co.uk — the volume, and where the entry-level office roles surface first
- fawkesandreece.co.uk and danielowen.co.uk — the two biggest construction-only lists
- Whichever regional specialist covers you — Calibre Search for the North, Girling Jones or RGB for the South West
- If surveying is the target: beachbaker.co.uk, every week, it is the most specialist list here
- Search document controller and site administrator on Indeed, your area, last seven days. These are advertised constantly, they are the easiest way in, and almost nobody searches for them
Once a fortnight, go direct: look up the main contractors and housebuilders operating near you by name — the hoardings on sites near you are a list of employers — and check their own careers pages. Contractors post graduate schemes, degree apprenticeships and trainee roles on their own sites that never reach an agency.
← All job families