Hong Kong QS Job Market Update

Hong Kong’s construction market has seen a recent decline in the number of new major project awards, however with a large number of projects still ongoing and experiencing significant delays the demand for Quantity Surveyors still remains strong, particularly for local Hong Kong residents with Cantonese language skills. The skills and project experience in demand for Quantity Surveyors/Commercial Managers can generally be grouped in 4 main areas:

Civil Engineering

Historically Hong Kong’s construction market has been driven by large scale civil engineering projects and over the past few years we have seen the development of a significant number of new projects, a number of which being large scale MTR extensions. The last decade alone has seen 5 major MTR extension projects including: Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, a 26km high speed rail link, and the most recent 17km Shatin to Central Link project. Along with the MTR extensions Hong Kong has seen a large number of road and bridge projects, including the landmark Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge. Many of these projects are still ongoing and experiencing delays which has helped maintain the demand for Quantity Surveyors with civil engineering/infrastructure project experience.

Building Projects

In previous years Building projects in Hong Kong have been outnumbered by large scale civil engineering projects, however with the recent slowdown in new civil projects has coincided with the steady growth of new building projects in Hong Kong. This has been shown by the recent increase in demand for Quantity Surveyors with large scale building project experience. Residential, commercial, leisure and retail project experience are all areas we are currently seeing a high demand for Quantity Surveyors in.

Electrical and Mechanical Projects

E&M is often seen as somewhat specialist area when it comes to Quantity Surveyors, and historically these positions have always been the hardest to fill for our clients. This is still largely true in Hong Kong where the demand for E&M experienced Quantity Surveyors often outstrips the supply available within the local market, which has often led to clients seeking to bring in the necessary skills for overseas locations. However, with a large number of ongoing building services, data centre and MTR E&M projects ongoing the demand for local Cantonese Quantity Surveyors with E&M project experience is as high as ever.

Claims Work

With a significant amount of large scale and technically complex construction projects ongoing in Hong Kong this has led to number of these projects experiencing significant delays. Delays to these projects have seen the emergence of a strong construction claims market in Hong Kong. With a number of large international and smaller niche claims consultancies operating in Hong Kong there is a strong demand for local Cantonese claims experienced Quantity Surveyor from both contracting and consultancy backgrounds.

The market for local Cantonese Quantity Surveyors continues to remain strong moving into 2016, so this could be the ideal time to consider your next job move. If you have experience in any of the areas discussed above and would like to learn more about the job opportunities available to you please get in touch and we’d be happy to discuss further.

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Tim Cole
Maxim Recruitment
Hong Kong Office – Covering Asia Region