After the economic liberalisation and deregulation initiative of 1991, there has been an explosion of activity in the real estate sector prompting highly qualified professionals to enter this business

With cities expanding and cheap home loans to be had for the asking, lifestyle changes and multinationals setting up shop across the country, there has been a sudden explosion of activity in the real estate business which until recently was not regarded a serious profession. It was synonymous with real estate agents most of whom were neither qualified nor trained.

But after the economic liberalisation and deregulation initiative of 1991, for reasons stated above and more, the industry has come alive with a whole new tribe of real estate developers, marketers, evaluators and sundry others offering a gamut of services ranging from buying-selling property to consultancy, valuation, legislation, finance and economics, property management, facilities management, and insurance advice. Hardly surprising given that in the past few years real estate multinationals such as Chesterton Meghraj, Colliers International Knight Frank, Cushman and Wakefield, Le Salle Partners, Jones Lang Wootton and Abaqus Property have pitched their tents in the subcontinent and are active recruiters in India’s top B-schools.

Inevitably there is a paucity of professional institutes or training establishments offering formal real estate study programmes. However CEPT (Centre for Environment Planning and Training), Ahmedabad, has introduced a Master’s programme in planning. Likewise the Kamala Raheja Institute of Architecture, Mumbai is all set to start a postgraduate degree course in real estate for engineering and/ or architecture graduates. There are of course quite a few short-duration diploma courses in real estate. For example the Mumbai-based Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies offers a one-year part-time diploma programme in the subject. So does the Indian Institute of Real Estate (IIRE) Mumbai, which has tied up with the National Association of Realtors, USA — America’s largest real estate association — to offer study courses leading to Graduate Realtors Institute certification.

“As the real estate business and new construction is growing at the rate of 6-7 percent per year, the number of people involved in the property market will double in the next few years. Given India’s housing deficit of 40 million homes, the construction business will continue to grow. Indeed this is already beginning to happen. Construction and real estate activity contributes 12 percent to the total GDP of the country, next only to agriculture,” says Joygopal Sanyal (33) who heads the consultancy division of Mumbai-based Chesterton Meghraj Property Consultants (P) Ltd.

An architecture graduate of Calcutta University with a Masters from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, Sanyal entered the urban, infrastructure and environmental planning and international real estate advisory business in 1995. Since then as a planner and project co-ordinator, he has been involved in and executed several large-scale developmental planning projects including city and regional development plans in Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh. As an independent consultant he developed an enviable clientele which included World Bank, Asian Development Bank, state and central government departments, PSUs and private sector corporates. Among the projects developed by him were the prestigious North Calcutta Conservation Project under the Centre for the Built Environment, Kolkata and Ecole De Architecture, Paris-Belleville, in 1993 (funded by Ford Foundation) for re-strengthening the urban conservation potential of Kolkata.

In 2001, Sanyal signed up with Chesterton Meghraj Mumbai, the first transnational real estate company to do business in India, to acquire an office for British Airways which set up an international call centre in suburban Vikhroli. According to Sanyal, Chesterton is the oldest real estate company in London promoted in 1805, which joined hands with Meghraj, a London-based NRI group, to promote Chesterton Meghraj Property. Under his watch CMP has experienced rapid growth. Currently the firm has six fully fledged offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata and several project offices with an aggregate 1,500 employees.

According to Sanyal, given the sustained construction and real estate boom in India, a growing number of architects and engineers with specialisation in finance, marketing and urban planning are gravitating towards the real estate and related businesses. Those with unique ideas and ability to engineer fast-selling projects can earn excellent commissions in addition to salaries which are attractive. “It’s only a matter of time before a degree will be a mandatory requirement in real estate management,” says Sanyal.

Looking ahead, given India’s geographical location on the world map and its rapidly growing middle class market, Sanyal believes this country could become a hub of international trade which will create huge warehousing and cargo logistics businesses which will be integrated into the real estate business. “As a result real estate will be one of the most preferred career options in the future, as it also provides tremendous scope for entrepreneurial ventures. Moreover it is an attractive and lucrative profession for women as well. Therefore the future — particularly for qualified real estate professionals — is very bright,” predicts Sanyal.

Indra Gidwani (Mumbai)