Lessons from the Rollercoaster
October 2015, my first-ever recruitment placement.
- The fee? £2,000
- The company? No longer exists
- The Candidate? No longer in the market
What did that teach me? Ironically, it felt easy. I’d expected more of a challenge, more of a steep learning curve. But what I came to realise is that recruitment isn’t really about your sales skills, it’s about your people skills.
Today, my biggest fee is fifteen times that first one. The process has become far more nuanced - more technical at times, and often tech-led (welcome to the dawn of 2026) - but one thing hasn’t changed: people matter. And how you interact with them matters most.
Ten years have been a journey and a half, through Brexit, Covid, and into what is arguably the most challenging market of them all. Thankfully, my time as a Sub-Prime Mortgage Underwriter in 2007 has taught me a few tricks on resilience...
The Beginning: When I started, the London property world was booming.
Everyone was hiring, and optimism was sky high. We could predict our top 10 clients Quarter by Quarter; we were hiring en masse for some of the best Agencies in London, but we were doing a lot with a few. I soon came to realise the meaning of ‘concentration risk’.
Brexit: Very quickly, confidence dropped.
Clients paused hiring, investors hesitated, and candidates suddenly weren’t sure if they wanted to move at all.
That was my first lesson: markets change, but people don’t. The good recruiters didn’t vanish when it got hard. They dug in. They called clients. They gave honest advice. They stayed present when others went quiet.
That’s what proved to me that recruitment isn’t about transactions, it’s about trust.
A Decade of Change: In the ten years I’ve been recruiting in real estate, we’ve seen a change of Monarch and more Housing Ministers than I can keep track of, each arriving with their own plan to “fix” the market, only to spend much of their time undoing the work of those who came before them.
Meanwhile, the property world just keeps moving, adapting, and evolving. Prime Ministers come and go. Policy shifts every other month. But people still need homes, businesses still need offices, and companies still need the right talent to make it all happen.
It’s been a constant reminder that in this industry, and in recruitment, stability doesn’t come from the market; it comes from you.
COVID: Just as things were starting to feel predictable again, the pandemic hit.
While we were doing our best to steady the ship amid all the upheaval, suddenly everyone became an expert on Zoom, banana bread and social distancing (a phrase that still makes me shudder).
Vacancies disappeared overnight, and deals came to a halt. I remember having to call three candidates in a single day to tell them their offers were being withdrawn. It was brutal, but also incredibly revealing. That period taught me more about empathy, honesty, and resilience than any boom market ever could. Because when people are scared, they don’t want a pitch; they want perspective.
We quickly realised that while the UK remained our biggest revenue stream, there was far more potential to unlock internationally. This allowed us to expand into overseas markets, all while continuing to manage and support our UK clients.
Fast forward, and within two years, we placed more candidates with international clients than we had in the previous three. If COVID taught us anything, it was how to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Navigating job offers after just two Zoom calls from London to Asia certainly wasn’t something I imagined doing back in 2015.
Real Estate Recruitment in 2025:
Fast-forward to today, and the landscape looks nothing like the one I started in. London’s real estate sector is reshaping itself. Mergers, acquisitions, and consolidations - it’s a game of scale, strategy, and staying power.
Recruiting through that means more than just filling roles. It’s about understanding what’s really driving these moves, like culture shifts, new leadership, integration challenges, and helping candidates find their footing in the middle of it all. It’s never been more complex. Or more rewarding when you get it right.
If I had to sum up ten years in one line? Recruitment rewards consistency more than brilliance.
You don’t need to be the loudest recruiter in the room. You just need to keep showing up, delivering on your promises, and focusing on people, not placements.
From my first placement to the most recent, the real success isn’t in the numbers. It’s in the relationships built, the careers shaped, and the trust earned through every challenge including Brexit, COVID, leadership chaos, and everything else this crazy decade has thrown our way.
And honestly? I’d do it all again.
Here’s to the next ten years - new markets, new challenges, and the same simple mission: connect great people with great opportunities, and do it the right way.
Congratulations to Lee on 10 fantastic years with GKR! If you’re looking for expert recruitment support in the residential property sector, connect with him on LinkedIn: Lee Riley.
