Progression, commission and compliance: what's changing in rental living hiring?
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I'm Hannah Taylor, and I lead the investment and rental living team here at deverellsmith. On our latest devcast podcast, I sat down with my colleague Jonathan Catt, who works across the operational functions of the living sector, to talk about what's actually driving movement in on-site and operational hiring.
Between the arrival of commission structures in leasing, a wave of new compliance roles and a sector that has stopped being niche, rental living hiring looks very different to how it did three years ago. Here's what we discussed.
Should rental living leasing roles have a commission structure?
This is the conversation Jonathan is currently having most often, and it comes down to how operators pay their on-site teams. There are broadly two models in the market:
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Salary plus bonus
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Salary, commission and bonus
With real demand for properties in certain areas, teams must be more on the ball about getting homes let, and the question is how you incentivise that.
Historically, rental living leasing hasn't had the same structures as estate agency and lettings, deliberately so, because operators wanted to protect the customer service experience rather than make the role feel ‘salesy’. That's beginning to shift. We're seeing talent with lettings and agency experience come into the sector, and Jonathan is a firm advocate for adding a commission element. On a role he's working on slightly outside London, commission turned out to be the key to getting it right.
The caveat matters though. Build to rent and single-family housing exist because they're trying to change the way people rent, and that's built on customer service. The aim is a sales edge inside a service-led role, not the other way around.
Where are salaries moving in rental living operations?
For core on-site operational roles, salaries have been consistent. Where you see fluctuation, it's usually a function of building size rather than a shift in the market.
The movement is happening in the newer and more specialist roles. Compliance and health and safety is one of the biggest talking points in the sector right now, and operators aren't just hiring into existing facilities management and health and safety roles, they're creating new ones around them. Demand for facilties management talent and recruiting for these roles has seen a significant uplift. That's where the salary fluctuation is showing up.
Why are maintenance operatives the hardest role to fill?
Maintenance is consistently the toughest area to recruit, and it's the one place where we've seen a steady salary increase.
The difficulty is the profile. A maintenance operative in build to rent has to be genuinely versatile across what they do, but they also have to bring the customer service side with them. As Jonathan put it, "it's not just about fixing things. You need to do it with a bit of a service." That's a narrower talent pool than it sounds.
There's a retention problem sitting behind it too. Part of it is salary, but a bigger part is that progression can be less linear from that position. The encouraging news is that as the sector matures, maintenance operatives can upskill into FM, which is a genuinely exciting and promising career path. Those opportunities just haven't consistently been there yet.
What is really driving people to leave rental living roles?
Progression, more than anything else. A survey we ran found that around 43% of people in the sector would consider leaving for career progression.
In practice, that question is "where do I go next, and what is my next scheme?" Take a general manager looking after a 200-unit scheme. Their natural next step is something bigger or more complex. If their employer doesn't have that, they'll look elsewhere, or they'll go looking for the experience that gets them to the next level, which is often mobilisation. Running a site that's been established for five years and mobilising a brand new one are completely different jobs.
Benefits are coming into play more heavily too. The point Jonathan made is that benefits are individual. What matters to one person on your team may be irrelevant to the next. Reviewing your benefits package properly, and understanding what your people actually value, is one of the more underrated retention levers available to operators.
Can you offer flexibility in an on-site operations role?
Hybrid working comes up constantly across our other desks, but in operations you're on site, and that limits what you can offer.
This is where single family housing is starting to pull ahead. The roles tend to be more head office based, which opens up flexibility that multifamily struggles to match. One operator Jonathan works with runs four days on site, one day at home pattern for people still working in operations. In a sector where flexibility is the thing candidates ask for and rarely get, that's a real differentiator.
Single family is growing quickly on its own terms as well. There are currently in the region of 12,000 professionally managed single-family homes, with tens of thousands more expected over the coming years.
How has hiring into the living sector changed?
When Jonathan joined just over three years ago, rental living was still quite niche. It isn't anymore.
We've seen the build to rent boom, then co-living arriving on the scene, and now single-family housing is where a lot of the attention sits. As the sector has matured, the candidate pool has matured with it. There are far more operators and far more people with genuine industry experience.
That's a good thing overall, and it means operators are now going after people with sector experience rather than training from scratch. The flip side is that it's become tougher for somebody trying to break into living for the first time, because they're up against candidates who already have it.
What's the outlook for rental living hiring over the next 12 months?
Steady, rather than booming, and that's no bad thing.
Single family housing is where the growth is, and there'll be hiring to match. Co-living should help too. Multifamily is the one to watch, because there aren't as many new sites coming on and there are very few completions due in 2027. That said, there will always be a steady stream of replacement hires in multifamily, and there will always be a need for people with real industry experience.
My own view is that operators and candidates alike should be looking to pivot a little away from multifamily and towards student, co-living and single family, because that's where the growth is going to sit.
Frequently asked questions
Do build to rent leasing roles pay commission?
Increasingly, yes. Operators typically use either salary plus bonus, or salary plus commission and bonus. Commission is becoming more common as operators look to incentivise letting performance, though customer service remains the priority in the role.
Which rental living roles are hardest to recruit?
Maintenance operatives are consistently the hardest. The role needs genuine technical versatility alongside a strong customer service approach, which narrows the available pool considerably.
Why do people leave rental living operations roles?
Career progression is the single biggest driver. Around 43% of people in the sector would consider leaving for it. General managers in particular look for a bigger scheme or the chance to mobilise a new site.
Is there any flexibility in on-site rental living roles?
It's limited in multifamily because the role is site based. Single family housing offers more, as the roles tend to be more head office based, and some operators run patterns such as four days on site and one at home.
What is the outlook for build to rent hiring?
Steady. There are fewer new multifamily sites coming through and very few completions due in 2027, but replacement hiring continues, and growth in single family housing and co-living should take up the slack.
About the podcast guests
Hannah Taylor | Manager, Investment and Living, deverellsmith
Hannah heads up the rental living team at deverellsmith, recruiting across build to rent, co-living, student and single family housing. She works with operators and investors on both on-site and head office appointments, and brings a broad view of how the living sectors connect to the wider investment market. Connect with Hannah on LinkedIn or email hannah.taylor@deverellsmith.com.
Jonathan Catt | Principal Consultant, deverellsmith
Jonathan sits on the living desk at deverellsmith, specialising in operational and on-site hiring across build to rent, co-living and single family housing. In just over three years he has built a deep network across operations, facilities management and compliance in the rental living sector. Connect with Jonathan on LinkedIn or email jonathan.catt@deverellsmith.com.
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