The real estate sector is in momentum. With Government policy under reform, there will be a demand for skilled hands which, in turn, will lead to fresh employment opportunities. If you have in-depth knowledge of this industry, good communication skills, negotiation powers and the ability to gather local market information, a career in this field is a good shot, says Anupam Saha
Conventionally, a career in real estate in India has been treated as a lesser sought option. Although the sector offers specialisations across verticals, brokers have remained front-runners of this industry. Till a few years back, it was said that ‘if you can’t get a job, become a real estate broker’. Today, however, the landscape of this industry has undergone a sea change. The real estate sector now offers many advantages and flexibility.
As a career today, it offers the foremost edge of accountability as you can be your own boss. With the correct attitude and work ethics, one can move on to build the business the way one wants. Today, the sector is the prime driver of the country’s economy. As per its recent performance, this sector has witnessed some hard and challenging times. Industry pundits may say the sector has hit its lowest bottom, but this cycle is expected to turn around and upward trend is round the corner.
Reports from RICS Property Monitor India say that the real estate market will remain fairly stagnant but there is a positive momentum in sentiment. So, this is an opportune time to build a career in the real estate industry. Even in its downtime, the sector is continuing to churn out the flab. The new-age consumer who is Internet savvy is continuing to demand high quality performance and delivery and is not easy to impress or convince. This is laying a pressing need on the sector to employ fresher and newer talent which is skilled and equipped to deal with the rising demands and expectations of this informed consumer.
This is also one of the influencing factors of professionals from other streams, industries and specialisations making a lateral shift to real estate service/consultancy. With this switch, the talent from other disciplines is also bringing with them, the skill, professionalism and the best practices to this sector.
This is leading to generation and creation of huge work opportunities for the pool of skilled and trained workforce. They can therefore, meet the international standards or benchmarks through their performance.
One of the articles on Indian real estate and skill shortages published in October 2013 in Project Monitor says that “real estate will be become the investment choice in global market and India may face growth issues as there will be huge shortages of skilled manpower with core technical knowledge”.
Therefore, sector specific knowledge and training is a major concern. If we look into the complete value chain of real estate, it can be divided into distinct sections.
If we look at the developer, finance and construction verticals, professionalism made a mark long back. Today, developers and construction companies employ people with skills in the area of engineering, architecture, chartered accountancy, project management, construction, land valuation, planning, safety and IT. Finance companies are engaging people with skills in project evaluation, fund management, risk evaluation and law.
These verticals have always attracted best of the talents from reputed engineering, management and law schools from across India. Remuneration for jobs in these sectors has always been at par with other industries and it has provided a very good growth opportunity too.
But at present, there is a huge shortage of core technical manpower, a prime reason being the conventional academic structure, which offers limited colleges and seats. Industry requirements has remained ahead of supply.
Among all the verticals in the real estate sector, consultancy is the only vertical that until few years back, did not attract the best of the talent. However, lately, with the change in the profile of end customers, consultants too are now set to change themselves. Talent from other service industry are happy to switch their careers and become real estate consultant. Professionalism has become the mantra for the consultants. People with good communication skills, knowledge about the the industry and the product are replacing older generation consultants who remain focussed on earning commissions.
The new generation consultants are guiding their investors on how to get better return on investment. Apart from the superior sales skills, the consultants today need to have good knowledge in their area of specialisation, be it commercial or residential, resale or new projects. If a person is specialised in corporate or commercial leasing he must have good negotiation powers. At the same time, he must ensure that the tenants are satisfied. The consultants must also have the skill to gather great deal of local market information, do research on them and then cater to the high profile clients who generally invest in these segments. A similar situation is applicable in the residential area.
Real estate consultancy as a career offers a lucrative commission structure. Since, newage consultants are able to bring in best practices and tools from other industries, this is helping them generate more volume and an increase in their monthly take-home salary. Careers in property management are generally salaried positions that include several other allowances and benefits. Initially, they can expect Rs20,000-Rs25,000 per month. An assistant property manager should expect to make Rs40,000-Rs50,000 per month. At the top level, a real estate manager can earn a salary of Rs70,000 to Rs1 lakh per month and also can expect an annual bonus along with other fringe benefits.
Universities like Amity and Ansal along with organisations like NAR India have already started various courses to help students make real estate consultancy as a career option. These schools have laid the foundation stone and few more organisations are already in advance stages of starting skill development schools for real estate.
Today, a student has the opportunity to learn or specialise any one vertical, be it commercial/residential or sales or leasing or property management. Specialised courses helping students enhance their communication skills and business etiquettes are gaining popularity.
With the expected policy changes/reforms in the near future, the real estate sector is pegged high on employment opportunities. Resultantly, more schools are likely to come up with courses which will develop skills in investment management, asset management, valuation, credit management, advisory and consulting, corporate/commercial property management, building control management and many more.
(The writer is co-founder & business head, RealtoExpress)