Perceiving a dearth of knowledge in this booming industry – namely progressive thinking, sustained industry dialogue, public private partnership, the need to strengthen technical know- how , research and adaptation of best practices along sub- sectors of real estate ( finance, governance, business processes etc)- the discussions sought to bridge this knowledge gap and crystallize possible research areas. Keeping in line with the ongoing research initiative in real estate and urban development issues at the ISB, this panel discussion sought to go beyond mere economics and demographics of real estate. It saw India’s real estate and infrastructure industry professionals, formulate a definitive dialogue on Indian Real Estate
“A year and a half back, we perceived a major need for professionalism to be inducted in the real estate industry. There is a lack of data and information, though the industry is growing at a dynamic pace,” said Professor V Chandrashekhar, Executive Director, WCED. That was the objective of the ISB Real Estate Research Chair- to contribute to research in the real estate industry on an ongoing basis.
Shyam Prasad Reddy, MD and CEO Indu Projects Limited gave a glimpse of the RE sector. He said that there is big business for real estate players, what with organized retail mushrooming in the country. However, according to him the industry was ailed by lack of transparency and credibility, an acute shortage of data and academic research and last a lack of uniform laws and regulatory systems. “A knowledge base and authentic data from a premier institute like the ISB, will help steam line the realtor and also the retail industry,” said Reddy.
Ganesh Raj, Partner and National Director RHC India, Ernst & Young Private Limited mentioned that this was the country’s first research initiative and that the RE industry was always wanting of data and analysis. He introduced the two topics of discussions – Land Management in the RE Industry- Assembly, Acquisition and Purchase, and RE Financial modelling – Technique and Data Sources.
Arvind Pahwa, MD, JP Morgan Asset Management noted, “With foreign funds and investors eyeing the Indian real estate market, we clearly need more clarity and professionalism.” He hoped that the ISB initiative would help formulate best practices for the industry.
Nayan Shah , CEO Mayfair Housing suggested that there was a need to develop competitive strategies which would give a developer the edge. Kishore Gotety, Director-Investments, ICICI Venture Funds Management, emphasised on the need for a “deep debt market.” Demarcating necessary reform areas, Gotety said the industry needed “well documented data on real estate, a more organized urban plan exercise and the ability to benchmark with the public index .Suresh Marmareddy, Asst VP- Investments
Citigroup Property investor seconded that there was a need to pipeline data and create an index if one wanted a mature real estate industry.
Other noted industry participants were KG Krishnamurthy, MD& CEO, HDFC Property Ventures Ltd, Neel Raheja, Group President, K Raheja Corp., Ramesh Sanka, Group CEO, DLF, Luv Shah, VP, Deutsche Bank REOF, Ramani Sastri, Chairman and MD, Sterling Developers Mohit Singh, MD , Shipra Group, Balaji Rao, MD, Starwood Capital
India and William Kistler, President, Urban Land Institute ( Europe)
The discussions were geared to fuel the top five list of research areas at the ISB Real Estate Research Lab and define ISB real estate research goals for the year 2007.