A new website, designed to encourage young people to consider a career in property, has been launched.

The Property Needs You website is aimed at a new generation of young people, and provides inspiration for the wide range of career choices in property, including estate agency.

Property Needs You is a brand developed by Changing The Face of Property, a collaboration of 12 of largest real estate consultancies in the UK, Allsop LLP, Avison Young, BNP Paribas Real Estate, Carter Jonas LLP, CBRE, Colliers International, Cushman and Wakefield, Gerald Eve LLP, JLL, Knight Frank, Lambert Smith Hampton and Savills, with a goal of creating greater diversity and inclusion in the industry.

Kelly Canterford, the programme manager at Changing The Face of Property, said: “Our new website reflects the wider work we’re doing as a collective. In the past, the property industry has drawn talent from a certain pool, primarily privately educated individuals from Russell Group Universities. This has changed and is changing but our mission is to further increase the junior pipeline with diversity across gender, disability, race and socio economics and part of that is helping young people, teachers and parents to see the variety of career choices in property, from planning and surveying to compliance and sustainability.

“Homes, warehouses, office spaces and rural environments; every aspect of our world is touched by professionals from the built environment. The opportunity to influence infrastructure and positively impact communities is extremely exciting. With a career in real estate, young people can change how we exist in the future.

“The new Property Needs You website features greater focus on the range of routes into the built environment, including apprenticeships, and property career opportunities available across the UK, in both city and rural communities. An intuitive career quiz helps young people to figure out what property careers could be suited to their personality and skills, with smart technology enabling dual results.”

Puneet Vedhera is a building surveyor working for Knight Frank and says the more information young people can have about careers in property, the better:

He commented: “My interest in property first came about through architecture, and I admit that the financial, entrepreneurial aspects appealed to me. My parents were keen for me to have a profession and it was actually my dad who suggested the idea of surveying after engaging a surveyor to work on one of his properties. Now, I couldn’t thank them enough for guiding me in this direction. I was born in Newcastle and studied at Northumbria University, with a year on placement at Newcastle University Estates Department.

“I joined Drivers Jonas Deloitte straight from university which is now known as Deloitte Real Estate. At that time, diversity was high on the company’s agenda, and although it was still quite a male, middle class environment, change was happening and I was part of it! At that point I was one of the only Northerners, and of Indian heritage, but although I didn’t quite fit the norm, I never saw it as an issue and I have never come across any problems in the time I’ve been in the industry. I now work at Knight Frank which like Deloitte certainly is an inclusive employer and committed to diversity and inclusion.

“It was my interest in becoming Chartered that was the catalyst for my move to Knight Frank, and I passed the necessary exams within 6 months of being here. I have worked with Knight Frank in both the Newcastle and London offices and I strongly believe in this industry you can work anywhere and enjoy a successful, well rounded career in property. When I was in Newcastle I built a great network through the RICS, chaired the RICS Matrics group, became an RICS Awards Judge as well as an ambassador for Newcastle Gateshead Council, I also progressed to Associate Partner level. The projects on offer in Newcastle were amazing too, London just presented a new challenge for me.

“One of the best things about a career in the property sector is how varied the work is, from residential jobs, offices to healthcare and retail space as well as refurbishments and new builds, you might be working alongside management consultants or mergers and acquisitions specialists. Building surveying is incredibly expansive, and the learning is continual. People also don’t realise how relationship based surveying is, and how much networking is involved which can make it an incredibly fun environment to work in.

“The more information young people can have about property careers the better so they can understand what the different roles are within the industry and what they involve. This certainly would have helped me when I was applying to university. I enjoy my role as a surveyor, but there are aspects of other roles that I find very interesting too. When you start looking into it, there are probably a number of property roles that you wouldn’t necessarily have considered, such as estates management, capital markets or quantity surveying.”