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If you鈥檙e a quantity surveyor wanting to earn serious money and work on interesting projects, there used to be only one place to be: London. Not now. Across the country, demand for qualified staff is so great that professionals with the right skills and experience can name their price 鈥� and force up salaries outside the capital. The chance to lower the cost of living, improve the quality of life and get onto the property ladder mean that the decision to move to the regions is a no-brainer for surveyors like Simon Freeth, Matthew Whittle and Jonathan White [pictured].

The brain drain has begun.

The 好色先生TV/Hays Construction & Property salary guide reveals that at almost every level quantity surveyors鈥� pay packets outside the capital are increasing faster than their London-based counterparts. In central London, salaries rose by up to 4%, but in the regions they reached 8%, 9% or even 12%. The exceptions to this rule are graduate QSs, who enjoyed an 8% rise in London to 拢21,000, and 6% rises almost everywhere else.

鈥淭here鈥檚 such demand at the moment you don鈥檛 have to work in London to earn a lot of money,鈥� confirms Gareth Broadrick, manager of Hays Construction & Property surveying and property division in London. 鈥淔irms in the regions will match whatever people are already getting.鈥� Broadrick says professionals in their late 30s are most in demand, partly as a result of the low number of graduates in the early 1990s, and he鈥檚 seen many moving out of London. Hays Construction & Property鈥檚 statistics show that the pay for a 38-year-old ARICS-qualified associate went up 4% to 拢47,000 in central London, but 8% almost everywhere else, and in Wales, salaries increased 9% to 拢38,000. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e earning a good salary, but unless they want to climb the corporate ladder they don鈥檛 have to be in London to do their job.鈥�

Gleeds employs 600 staff in the UK. Alan Baker is managing partner in charge of the Nottingham office and he鈥檚 noticed an increase in the number of CVs he receives from people wanting to move out of London. 鈥淚t鈥檚 because of lifestyle issues and property prices. People talk about the time it takes them to get to work. I can be in the office in 15 minutes. The restaurants and bars and nightlife outside London is on a par now as well; it鈥檚 really excellent for young people.鈥�

Aside from the draw of a better lifestyle, Baker believes recruits are attracted by the improved opportunities on offer. 鈥淥ne time if you wanted to work on a big project, you had to work in London. Now there鈥檚 a large hospitals and schools programme, government relocation is starting and there鈥檚 a lot of regeneration work. You don鈥檛 have to work in London to work on a 拢50-100m scheme.鈥�

Terry Banham, HR director at Turner & Townsend, which employs 900 staff across the UK, points out that even working on the highest profile projects that London has to offer is not that much fun: 鈥�Terminal 5 is a big sexy exciting project, but if you live in the east or south of London, getting to Heathrow is a nightmare 鈥� you鈥檙e looking at four hours travel a day.鈥�

The regeneration of the North-east has proved a powerful magnet for QSs. Newcastle and Sunderland are benefiting from housing projects, tourist-pulling schemes such as Newcastle鈥檚 music centre and the Baltic art gallery, as well as a hotel and retail boom.

But smaller firms are feeling the pinch. Alan Dunn, director at the 35-strong Hall & Partners in Newcastle, says it has been forced to look outside the area for staff and to pay them more. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a definite shortage of QSs. We鈥檝e got a huge workload and if we can鈥檛 do the jobs we won鈥檛 get the clients. It鈥檚 a premium we鈥檙e willing to pay.鈥� He adds that the firm has had to give its existing staff increases of between 8% and 13% to keep them in line with new employees. In fact, the firm pays senior surveyors more than 拢40,000, which is above the typical salary in the North-east of 拢34,000, according to Hays Construction & Property鈥檚 statistics.

London firms setting up regional offices are pushing up local salaries in the regions. At Turner & Townsend, HR director Terry Banham says that it has asked several employees to relocate from London to cities in the North in the past year, where local projects demand particular skills. 鈥淚f we ask them to move, we wouldn鈥檛 do any kind of salary adjustment,鈥漢e says.

In Liverpool, which is undergoing a boom triggered by regeneration and its debut as European Capital of Culture in 2008, local firms are feeling the impact of the newcomers. 鈥淎 number of UK and London surveyors have moved to the area because of the opportunities created by the boom. It鈥檚 never been so hard to find staff,鈥� says Andrew Taylor, finance director of Tweeds in Liverpool, where 40 of its 140 UK staff are based.

The impact for smaller local firms could be severe, points out David Taylor, director in charge of the Glasgow office of CBA, which employs 35 people in Glasgow and Edinburgh. 鈥淔ee levels aren鈥檛 going up and salary levels will affect the bottom line for any organisation.鈥� He says that in the last couple of years salaries have risen about 10%.

In London, firms are fighting to keep their London offices fully staffed. Lauren Bartlett, HR officer at Gardiner & Theobald, has noticed an increase in requests to transfer to the North. She says salaries are up to 拢10,000 higher than 18 months ago. 鈥淭here鈥檚 been a huge jump. You get into a bidding war. You make an offer, someone else goes 拢5k above that.鈥� In response, G&T pays 拢3000 joining bonuses to staff and 拢3000 to staff who recommend a friend to the company.

Could London cease to be an essential port of call for QSs wishing to make their way in the world? Rob Smith, senior partner at Davis Langdon, thinks not. 鈥淐areer-focused people are still going to have to make it work in London. There鈥檚 housing in the pipeline that will get property prices into balance. There鈥檒l be a steady flow of people doing their 10 years in London and then thinking about the lifestyle change.鈥�

Besides, he adds, things are heating up in the capital, particularly if it is wins the Olympics in 2012. 鈥淚f we get it, that鈥檒l draw people back in this direction again,鈥� he says. 鈥淭here are also enough really big projects happening - Kings Cross, Stratford, the next phase of White City. Liverpool鈥檚 Paradise Street and the development of Bath, can鈥檛 compete with these.鈥�