By: Sachin Sandhir, Managing Director, RICS South Asia
It has been strangely characteristic for the real estate and construction industry in India to remain unregulated and unrecognized, even though it is one of the largest employers and contributors to national growth.
Real estate professional services have not quite matched the expectations of clients, as projects continue to remain plagued by several uncertainties and suffer on account of economic cycles, inflation and increased input costs, contractual bottlenecks and archaic laws and policies. All of these continue to affect project commencement and delivery, along with the lackadaisical attitude and poor coordination between various authorities and agencies.
Consequently, both practitioners and the industry at large have suffered from a tarnished and poor image. However, given the pivotal role that the industry is expected to play and as the sector becomes more complex in scope and structure, there is a growing demand for the realty sector to undergo a much needed ‘facelift’.
Today, the industry is in a constant state of evolution and subject to ‘change’ with the advent of new technology, regulatory reforms, and economic challenges. Some of these aspects have seldom been experienced by practitioners during their tenures, resulting in some resistance to adopting these new facets of real estate business. However, in order for the sector to compete in an increasingly global marketplace where real estate markets are to a large extent intrinsically linked and interrelated, there is little choice but to embrace such changes.
