The situation has worsened after the entry of private equity players focused on real estate who are also in the race to hire real estate professionals, says Magazine. At the same time, developers have started scaling up and are expanding outside their home markets. The result is a war for talent between developers, private equity players and real estate consultancy firms.
The paucity means that companies are open to hiring managers and executives from other unrelated businesses. “These guys don’t know much about real estate,” says Sengupta, referring to such executives, “but what they do is help in making the company professional. The pay packet is outstanding—over and above the printed numbers they get a lot more.”
But the scramble for talent is also creating other headaches for developers themselves. No sooner have they groomed executives that the competition starts making overtures to them. Attrition levels in the industry are at 30-40%, according to industry estimates. And poaching is a way of life.
Recently, Munish K. Baldev, previously the head of retail at Unitech Ltd, moved to Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd as its president (marketing).
To address the talent gap, companies such as DLF, Unitech and Ansal API, previously strangers to campus recruitment, have started picking up talent from engineering and business schools.
Some schools have introduced specialized courses on real estate to prepare students for a career in the sector. For instance, the Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business has launched a course titled Property Finance and Investment. And the Pune-based Indian Institute of Real Estate, affiliated with the National Association of Realtors, a leading association of realtors in the US, offers certificate courses in the real estate business.
(Ammar Master in Mumbai and John Samuel Raja D. in New Delhi contributed to this story.)