Realty sector starved of quality talent; need to attract skilled diverse talent: Industry experts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The real estate sector is deficient in quality talent and there is a need to attract young skilled people especially women in this industry to sustain the scale of business, according to industry experts. Addressing a FICCI Real Estate Summit on Tuesday, Godrej Properties MD and CEO Gaurav Pandey listed out many challenges confronting the real estate sector, including the need for quality talent and regulatory reforms particularly at the state level. “What I would say for the industry to look out for us as developers, I think number one is going to be talent. I think talent is the name of the game. You cannot sustain the scale without great quality talent. I think real estate really is deficient in the quality of talent,” Pandey said. “Why because if you see the funnel, which is from engineering colleges, is never the first choice of kids. They would want to be in computer science and all.

 

So how do we fix this problem at the source level? How do we make it exciting for talent to get into this sector? How do we get the diversity right?” he observed. Pandey noted that one cannot have a thriving business without diversity. “How do you get women workforce? How do you get diverse talent into real estate? I think that’s a huge, huge challenge,” Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Dutt also agreed that quality talent is a challenge for the sector and stressed on the need to address this for the holistic growth of the real estate sector. He said the office space supply is poised to surpass one billion square feet.

 

Dutt noted that global investors, especially from the US, Canada and European countries, are nervous and there is a bit of pause. He said India is attracting investment from the Middle East and Japan but eventually, other countries would also participate in the Indian real estate growth story. Signature Global Chairman Pradeep Aggarwal said any increase in interest loans on home loans could derail the current strong demand momentum. Sriram Mahadevan, MD of Joyville Shapoorji Housing, said it is becoming difficult to develop affordable housing because of the high land cost. He also stressed on the constant need to gauge consumer demand for offering the right kind of inventories in the market.