Quantity Surveyor Salary in United Kingdom – As a quantity surveyor, your role is to minimize expenses and potential hazards of a construction project while also maximizing value for money and maintaining legal standards and quality. This entails ensuring compliance with mandatory building regulations.
As a Quantity Surveyor, you will create cost estimates for the construction project and monitor any changes to the contract during the project’s progress that could impact costs. You will also generate reports to demonstrate profitability.
As a Quantity Surveyor, you will play a critical role throughout every stage of a construction project, regardless of whether you are working for the client or the contractor, or whether the work is being done on-site or in an office. The types of projects you will be involved in include commercial, industrial, and residential constructions. Alternative job titles that may be used include construction cost consultant, cost manager, and commercial manager.
Quantity Surveyor Salary in United Kingdom
The Average Quantity Surveyor salary in the UK is £52,815 range from £43,338 – £66,205.
Your salary as a Quantity Surveyor can vary based on factors such as your qualifications, skills, and experience, the location of your job, the type of employer you work for (e.g. consultancy or contractor), and the industry you are working in. Holding chartered status can significantly improve both your job and salary prospects.
- Salaries for trainees and graduate apprentices range from £21,000 to around £28,000, depending on your experience.
- Newly trained chartered surveyors can earn around £25,000 to £35,000.
- With experience, you can earn around £35,000 to £55,000.
- Salaries at management level range from around £50,000 to in excess of £80,000.
As a Quantity Surveyor, you may be eligible for bonuses if performance targets are met. Additionally, you can earn salary increases by obtaining more qualifications and taking on additional responsibilities. Other benefits that may be offered include a car allowance, pension plan, private healthcare, and life insurance.
Quantity Surveyor Responsibilities
As a Quantity Surveyor, your specific responsibilities will vary to some extent depending on whether you work for a consultancy as a private quantity surveyor (PQS) or for a contractor.
As a Private Quantity Surveyor (PQS), you will be responsible for providing guidance to clients from the early stages of a project by determining the budget and distributing it for bids to contractors. On the other hand, the Quantity Surveyor working for the contractor will be more hands-on, working on-site and communicating with the PQS. Some companies offer a full-service solution that spans from the design phase to the completion of the project.
However, as a Quantity Surveyor, you will typically be required to:
- assist in establishing a client’s requirements and undertake feasibility studies to ensure their proposals will work
- prepare and analyse project costings for tenders, such as materials, quantities, labour and time
- prepare tender and contract documents, including bills of quantities with the architect and/or the client
- negotiate contracts and work schedules
- allocate work to subcontractors and oversee their work at all stages of the construction
- perform risk, value management and cost control during construction
- undertake cost analysis for repair and maintenance project work
- advise on a procurement strategy
- identify, analyse and develop responses to commercial risks
- provide advice on contractual claims and disputes
- analyse outcomes and write detailed progress reports
- value completed work, oversee bills and arrange payments
- maintain awareness of the different building contracts in current use
- understand the implications of health and safety regulations.
Once you’ve gained sufficient experience and specialist knowledge, you may also:
- offer advice on property taxation
- provide post-occupancy advice, facilities management services and life cycle costing advice
- assist clients in locating and accessing additional and alternative sources of funding
- enable clients to initiate construction projects
- advise on the maintenance costs of specific buildings.
Quantity Surveyor Working Hours
A typical workweek for a Quantity Surveyor is 37 to 40 hours, but there may be instances where weekend work is necessary.
If you work at a consultancy (private practice) or in a local government department, you will usually have a standard office workweek. However, if you work for a contractor on-site, your working hours may be longer and may include shift work.
Career Prospects
As a trainee quantity surveyor, you will typically begin your career and progress to a junior or assistant surveyor position, assisting senior surveyors. Typically, it takes 2-3 years in a junior role to develop the necessary skills and experience.
After gaining experience as a junior/assistant surveyor, you may advance to an intermediate role where you will work independently and manage larger projects with higher budgets and less supervision. To enhance your career prospects and earning potential, it is essential to obtain chartered status as a quantity surveyor. After becoming chartered, you may choose to continue working in a variety of fields or specialize in a specific type of infrastructure such as road or bridge construction.
An alternate path is to focus on a specific discipline such as civil engineering, tax and capital allowances, supply chain management, planning, or legal services like contractual disputes. With an additional 2-3 years of experience, it is possible to advance to a senior surveying position where you will oversee trainee and junior surveyors. Additionally, further career advancement opportunities include roles like quantity surveyor manager, project manager, or contracts and commercial manager. For these types of positions, you will typically need at least 10 years of experience as well as strong leadership, communication, and analytical skills.
Experienced professionals may have the opportunity to pursue freelance consultancy work or self-employment. Additionally, there may be opportunities to work internationally.