Site manager: 1,000 homes, good pay, no successor

Site manager: €45,000-60,000 a year, 1,000 homes, and no successor

How much does a site manager earn in Spain? The direct answer comes from a 52-year-old professional who started working at 14, joined as an apprentice with a contract at 16, and has completed over a thousand homes: between €45,000 and €60,000 gross per year. The figure is surprising in a struggling sector, but the man himself qualifies it: for newcomers, what newcomers? There is no succession, and anyone on site knows it.

A trade with 38 years of mud on his back

Starting at 14 without a contract, learning the trade through hard knocks, and completing 1,000 hours of night training over three years after working as a bricklayer. That is the CV described by the site manager, who also completed a higher vocational qualification in 2009, just when the crisis left him unemployed. Then came the job at an IBEX construction company and the list of duties that anyone would identify as the real engine of a construction site: interpreting plans, scheduling trades, overseeing safety, controlling quality, and ordering materials. If something goes wrong, the mistake is his too.

The battle of ranks: site manager versus project manager

It's not all about money. The classic status struggle comes up in conversation. Some claim that a site manager is just a worker with a bit more authority and that the project manager is the one really in charge. The retort is telling: a good site manager makes a bad project manager look good, not the other way around. The conversation ends with a duel between knowledge from documents and knowledge learned by watching the scaffolding; this trade is one of those places where nothing is written down.

Chain subcontracting: from IBEX to self-employed with no safety net

The X-ray of the sector that emerges from these testimonies is devastating. Large construction companies barely hire: they leave the bulk to subcontractors, and these subcontract to self-employed workers who in turn take on undocumented workers in 12-hour shifts. The question of who is responsible when everything goes wrong hangs in the air, along with the suspicion that quality is the first victim. The phrase is even quoted that with unit prices in tenders, the only way to make money is to charge for what is not done. No more needs to be said.

Labour that doesn't arrive and that which arrives without a trade

The other major front is demographic. It is noted that 25.3% of workers in the sector are foreigners and that this massive influx sets a wage ceiling for lower positions. But at the same time, it is acknowledged that without this labour force, no one would build the houses. The lack of local succession is structural: those who left in the 2008 crisis never returned, and young people do not see construction as a future. On top of that, multicultural crews pose communication and coexistence challenges that the site manager resolves with gestures, drawings, and patience. Or by calling the shift supervisor when he gets fed up.

Costs, quality, and other accounts that don't add up

The cost of construction is around €1,200 per square metre according to recent projects. This figure, combined with pressure to cut costs, explains why people talk about bad projects, low-quality materials, and human errors. However, the site manager defends that well-finished developments can be done: he cites social housing with good insulation and serious finishes. The contradiction is that the system rewards the opposite, and the site manager himself ends up asking not to be lumped in with dubious practices: he leaves that to the bosses.

The trade will not die out as long as there is a need for housing. But the underlying question remains unanswered: who will do it when those who started at 14 retire. Meanwhile, the site manager remains available, with the same old maxim: on a construction site, where nobody wants you, they always end up calling you. With a thousand homes behind him, he can afford it.