Track2Realty Exclusive: Some analysts are of the view that in some other sectors people are vocal because they come from very powerful political background and are second generation entrepreneurs. Then, they are active at the federal level without any structural defect where policy at centre might help at some level and hamper at some other state level. Automobile policies, for instance, are framed for across the country.
Track2Realty Exclusive: In its quest for getting professional and have a facelift, the real estate hired professionals from very many other industries. When the going was good some of these companies even shifted management control at the operational level to these professionals. And just when it seemed that the Indian realty is fast maturing from promoter-driven to professional-driven, the downturn in the last few years exposed the sector to an altogether new reality. Track2Realty noted that churn out at the top of these realty companies has been very high and professional-driven management is not a panacea to the woes of the sector.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Realty is predominantly a regional business, primarily on account of land being a state subject. Therefore it is a tough task for one single body or association to represent the views and opinions of all stakeholders in the sector.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Asking for industry status, the sector doesn’t want elements of accountability that comes with the package. Quite opposed to the very idea of regulation, even after self-regulatory attempts didn’t work out, realty doesn’t evoke confidence at the policy level and often ends up being at loggerheads with the government. Track2Realty finds that though policy advocacy is very much desirable in the sector, it is yet so debatable that the stakeholders have failed to evolve a consensus over its issues and agenda.
The Indian realty sector is facing an acute scarcity of labour as on today. The fast emerging problem will soon drive the realty sector to take to large scale mechanization and what is often referred to as project management. The propensity can be clearly understood based on the premise that the shortage of labour is projected to rise to about 65% mark by the next decade.
Track2Realty: The greatest opportunity and challenge to India’s growth is infrastructure and the greatest challenge to the growth of infrastructure is risks – anticipated and unforeseen – that is part of any project. Risk and its effective mitigation were discussed at Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) & CBRE’s flagship event the 2nd Edition of the Conference on Infrastructure Project Management with the theme ‘Risk Management in Projects’. CBRE is the Knowledge Partner for the Conference on Thursday, April 25.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Many urban planners maintain the genesis of the model integrated township in India lies in Jamshedpur, developed by the TATA Group. However, modern realty analysts maintain no one understands the grandeur of an integrated township better than Jaypee Group due to its locational vantage point and large tract of land bank. The infrastructure major has to its credit state-of-the-art township along the Yamuna Expressway.
Track2Realty: Tata Housing has announced the outstanding over-subscription of its newly launched project – Gateway Capital, located at sector 112, Gurgaon. The company claims that for the first time in the history of Indian real estate industry, Tata Housing introduced a unique strategy of selling its units through an IPO-styled concept by floating a range of Basic Sales Price in the market, from Rs.9000 psf to Rs.11000 psf.
Gaurav Gupta: I think you will have to take into account the historical background of real estate industry. All of us know historically real estate was never a professional industry in the country before FDI came in 2005. The industry was really fragmented and the industry was with small developers and it was more like a family business.
I would like to ask the developer friends here when they say there is an ambiguity as far as ECB is concerned. Which are the funding routes that you find without ambiguity—whether it is private equity, QIP, IPO or any other route to raise money?
Gaurav Gupta: I would say there are multiple challenges for the sector.