Property is about people
A student success story with Sadaqat Hussain MRICS
“I am really excited for what the future holds. As I close a door on a big chapter in my life, another has already begun.”
Average read time: 11 mins
01 July 2024
This case study may refer to UCEM, the name of University of the Built Environment before it changed in June 2025.
It’s been a significant 12 months since we last caught up with UCEM alumni Sadaqat Hussain.
After passing his APC and officially becoming a Chartered Surveyor last May, he was a recipient of the Alumni Award at October’s UCEM Property Awards event in London, where UCEM’s Vice Chancellor praised him as ‘an excellent advocate for the sector and a role model for the next generation’.
However, rather than resting on his laurels after five years of study, Sad chose to launch a whole new stage in his career, leaving Cushman & Wakefield (C&W).
“It felt right for a change,” said Sad on his decision to join CBRE in December. “It felt like a great opportunity to try something new, challenge myself, and continue on this journey.”
When we caught up with him earlier this year in Birmingham, Sad had already made an impression at CBRE and settled in well. He met us at the firm’s Temple Row office, where he filled us in on how the next stage of his journey in the built environment has begun.
Would it be wrong for me to say I was a big fan of Homes Under the Hammer?"
Like many students who end up pursuing a career in the sector, Sad wasn’t initially aware the built environment was even an option for him. He discovered an interest in property – largely thanks to 10am reruns of Homes Under the Hammer on BBC One – at a young age, which marked the beginning of his long journey into the sector.
“I used to love watching Martin and Lucy. If it was ever the school holidays and I was at home, Homes Under the Hammer was what I watched. I enjoyed the selling and letting of properties, and this is what sparked my interest.”
Sad wasn’t aware of any career pathway in the sector at this stage, besides estate agency. He ended up ‘following the crowd’, as he put it, pursuing a career in accountancy and studying a business course at sixth form.
“I come from a background where accountancy, law and engineering are the careers you go into, but I knew deep down that it wasn’t really what I wanted to do. It was only when I started to do more research that I came across surveying.”
Sad’s research into surveying reignited his interest and passion for property and, he began to consider an apprenticeship scheme. While he ended up changing direction, his sixth form studies, in his view, put him in a good position to enter the built environment.
“What was really good about the business course was that my teachers brought the practicality of the real world into the theory. This really helped me in my apprenticeship, because apprenticeships aren’t just about theory – they’re about the real world.”
When you think of surveying, you think hard hats and high-vis jackets, but it’s so much more diverse than that."
Sad isn’t alone in having studied business before shifting to a career in the built environment. He believes this is a testament to the breadth and diversity of surveying, but also a challenge that the built environment needs to overcome.
“The issue the built environment has is one of awareness and openness”, he said. “It needs to be talked about in schools, in colleges and in sixth forms. It’s a fun, diverse career. It’s people oriented too, but it just needs better representation within education and careers spaces – the kind of representation being a lawyer, solicitor or accountant gets.”
“If I ever told anyone I was a surveyor, they’d say ‘Oh, what does a surveyor do?’ It’s so difficult to summarise the role of a surveyor, because in truth it’s a lot of different things. It’s such a broad area – there’s quantity surveying, then there’s building surveying, and there’s land surveying. It’s so open and diverse.”
“When you think of surveying and the built environment, you think of hard hats and high-vis jackets. This is of course an important element, as you have to wear this equipment when you go out and inspect properties, but there’s also an aspect of professionalism behind it, and the fact it’s governed by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).”
While Sad thinks progress is being made, he ultimately believes the built environment still has a long way to go to generate the same levels of awareness among young generations as other professions.
“RICS are working hard to raise awareness and make sure our sector is open to everyone, but ultimately it’s down to the efforts of individuals to change the perception of the built environment and raise awareness.”
True to his word, Sad himself has long been an advocate for the built environment, and he was named on Empower’s 100 Ethnic Minority Future leaders list in 2020. Outreach is something he’s passionate about and, having discovered the real estate industry through his own research, he’s keen to share the opportunities the built environment provides with younger generations.
“I go to schools and talk to them about my profession and, for schools located in the city, bring them into our offices to show them what working in real estate is like. It’s a really important thing to do.”
I was apprehensive at the beginning because I was thinking ‘How am I going to learn if it’s all remote?"
As with many apprenticeship schemes, Sad’s work rotated into different teams, services and skill lines. He credits this with changing his perception of surveying and helping him identify find which aspect of the profession appealed the most to him.
“Rotating into different teams was one of the best things about my apprenticeship”, he told us. “It helped me understand my professional capabilities and learn more about myself as an individual – what my strengths and weaknesses were.”
He admitted to being initially apprehensive about remote learning, which, in a pre-COVID world in 2018, seemed like an alien concept.
“I was apprehensive at the beginning because I was thinking ‘How am I going to learn if it’s all remote? How can I meet my lecturer and build a relationship with them?’ But when it began, it ended up feeling right and totally changed my perspective.
“One thing that UCEM provides is flexibility,” he said. “It gives you the chance to control how and when you’re learning, so that you can study in a way that feels comfortable to you. In a physical university, you’d be staying on campus from 9am until 6pm if you had two modules. UCEM provides the same depth and resources, but in such a way that different types of people can make it work for them.”
“Compared to a physical, in-person university, studying online worked really well. I learned a lot from it and it made me a better organiser, because it was giving me control over how I study.”
When asked if the flexibility of UCEM helped him balance work and studies, Sad agreed. “Yes, it did. There were of course times when my workload was significant, and times when I really needed to focus on my studies, but that’s where you have to take your own initiative and use your spare time.”
“UCEM’s learning platform, the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), was great. It was structured in a seamless way. It changed my perspective on remote learning.
"I think remote learning is the future of how to manage both work and study. If you’re looking for an apprenticeship or want to study a degree part time, this method is really beneficial.”
“Compared to a physical, in-person university, studying online worked really well."
“UCEM’s learning platform was great. It was structured in a seamless way. It changed my perspective on remote learning.”
I was able to apply what I learned in my modules at UCEM into my day-to-day work."
Sad took the Real Estate pathway in his apprenticeship and found his studies reflected his role day-to-day role.
“My favourite module was Development and Planning. I loved it because it gave you the creativity to look at space and think about how it could be best purposed. You also had to look at what the market conditions were like, what people’s needs were, and how a development would serve the community.
"This module really helped me because, when I went into the development and planning team, I was already studying and thinking about the questions our clients had, so I was in a position where I could give advice to them.
"There were other modules, too. Valuation, which is one of the most technical parts of surveying, was really useful in helping me understand different valuation techniques that I then applied to my role.”
Sad admitted that some of the modules were more challenging than others, but he told us the setup of apprenticeships helped him fill his knowledge gaps.
“When you’re on an apprenticeship and you’re stuck on something, you’ve got real-life experts in your company who you can go to and get their input. They can give you a perspective and help you understand what you might be missing and what you need to do.”
“One huge aspect of being an apprentice is peer ship. When I joined, there were four other new starters with me, and we call came together and built a good relationship with one another. You end up working together to help build your understanding.
"We ended up in different teams through the rotation process, but we were all linked through UCEM and being apprentices. We were on the same journey together. So, if anyone got stuck, the WhatsApp chat would go berserk, they’d be impromptu phone calls… we’d be there to help each other out.”
2019 was a year where I began to understand who I was and challenge myself. Then 2020 came along and everything just shut down.”
Sad was one of the millions of students whose lives were impacted significantly by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“COVID changed the world,” he said. “When I look back at 2019, I was doing so much… I was really thriving and enjoying what I was doing. Then 2020 came along and everything just shut down. It was a really strange time.
"I had personal challenges around this time – there was a lot of uncertainty around what was going to happen for a lot of people. But the thing you’ve got to do in these situations is just to keep going.”
“It would be a 40-minute chat, sometimes up to an hour, where we’d discuss where I was. It was a great way to make sure that I was working towards the end assessment.”
“UCEM’s Apprenticeship Outcome Officer (AOO) system was extremely helpful during COVID. I had Jenny Cairns, who is amazing. She was someone who I never actually met until I graduated, but I built such a great relationship with her. When things did get difficult, she was able to break things down and help me understand things better.”
UCEM’s Apprenticeship Outcome Officers and Assistant Apprenticeship Officers (AAOs) play a crucial role in supporting both apprentices and employers. Sad and his line manager for his current team would meet with Jenny once every two months to check in, review his progress and see if any support was required.
“I met Sadaqat via Skype in September 2018, and we got to know each other well,” Jenny told us. “Sadaqat came across very personable and always shared what was happening in his personal life but yet always ensured that he remained compliant on his apprenticeship and worked very hard- he was and is a very driven individual.
“Sadaqat and I would touch base regularly, especially during the pandemic which for a long period of time, Sadaqat faced personal difficulties. We would talk through together how he is feeling, breaking down ‘to do’ lists and generally talking about how he was going to take each day at a time – suddenly working remotely and alone became a new reality for Sadaqat and the rest of the world!
"Despite all Sadaqat was facing, he was and still is looked upon as a reliable and dependable individual due to him always wanting to help, assist and develop others, but whilst also taking accountability for his own personal development by putting plans in place to help him continually develop, both in the workplace and on the apprenticeship which makes him a fantastic role model.
"I remember Sadaqat always sharing with me how he was part of so many various networking events, as well as getting involved with different teams such as focusing on diversity, and I can see he is continuing to do this and getting involved and promoting the industry he is in.
"In seven years of being an Apprenticeship Outcomes Officer, it has taken time to realise that my role does impact some apprentices and Sadaqat has by far provided me with the confidence that what we do here at UCEM can make a real difference and help to shape the surveying industry.
"I am delighted to read how much Sadaqat has achieved since becoming a Chartered Surveyor… he has the world at his feet!”
Although the apprenticeship has ended, I’m still learning and developing."
When asked to pick the highlight of his career up to now, Sad identified the time he shadowed John Forrester, the (then) CEO and Global President of C&W.
“I got to spend a day with John, who’d just come into post and ran the global business – one of the largest real estate firms in the world.
There’s always the stereotype of CEOs being very business-focused people, but John was just so kind and personable. He gave me some really good advice – not just about work, but about people and how to carry and present yourself."
Sad completed his Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) last May officially becoming a Chartered Surveyor, but far from marking the end of a remarkable journey, he continues to seek opportunities to learn and develop.
"Since passing the APC, I’ve been constantly learning and, although the apprenticeship has ended, I’m still on a trajectory of learning and developing.”
I’ve been really fortunate to do a lot of things in D&I.”
Sad is just as excited about his work in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion as he is his career. “I’m a firm believer that people should be able to be themselves at the workplace. They shouldn’t be this filtered version of an individual, or feel like they can’t be themselves.”
At C&W, Sad enrolled in Inspire, the company’s D&I initiative. In order to create an environment where ‘people could get to know one another’, he organised network social events focused around different faiths and festivities.
“At the time, Diwali was around the corner, and I thought to myself ‘what could we do to make people understand what Diwali is and who celebrates Diwali? What’s the one thing that unites everyone and can bring anyone together? Food is that thing.”
Sad has continued his work in DE&I with CBRE, joining the organisation’s Faith Network.
“One thing I’ve learned is CBRE is very active with their DE&I initiatives. I joined the Faith Network because I want to be responsible for making sure there’s similar initiatives taking place in Birmingham.
“We’ve launched a fasting challenge where people have the opportunity to fast for day, as Muslims do in the month of Ramadan, and see how they find it. In doing so, they’ll be raising money.
“I’m also a member of CBRE’s Birmingham Junior Board and we’ve recently announced our national charity partner, which is the Alzheimer's Society.
“Being part of the Birmingham Junior Board will enable me to work with people in the office to host events and ultimately raise money for a really valuable cause.
“Participating in these initiatives at this point of my CBRE career is great, because it helps me network with people in the office and get to know them.”
“I’m definitely a people person – people are what make this a really enjoyable career.”
Sad joined CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm, in December of last year. three months on, he’s already settled in well.
“I feel like I’ve been here for ages. I feel very settled, and everyone has been lovely.”
“I’m excited to have joined CBRE. It’s great to be in a new environment with new clients and continuing to have the opportunity to learn and develop.”
"CBRE is a very people-oriented company – they care about their people and have a lot of trust in them, and that really comes through behind the scenes.”
Sad’s previous role at C&W was primarily about dealing with client portfolios and providing strategic advice. His new role at CBRE focuses more on the relationship with the client, allowing him to spend more time on his favourite aspect of real estate – working with people.
“I’m definitely a people person. Over the years, I’ve built great relationships with people who have supported me, guided me and made me laugh. I’ve been really fortunate in my career so far to have worked with so many different people, and all of them, in some way, shape or form, have helped me become a better version of myself.”
“Property is about people.”
"In my new role, there’s much more emphasis on developing relationships with clients and providing a great service to them. “Alongside my day-to-day interactions with them, I’m also looking at how we can change things and enhance their experience, which is a big change from my previous role.
“I also work with our junior members of the team to help them understand property and guide them through their training and development.
"The people are what make this the best – the clients and the people I work with. They’re what makes this an enjoyable career.”
