IACC seminar

 The Indo American Chamber of Commerce, Karnataka, recently organised a seminar on “South India—the changing impact of the real estate boom”. There has been a tremendous shoot in real estate prices in the southern cities of Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai forming the IT Golden triangle, making it the most favourable location for IT/ ITeS occupiers, with capital flow into commercial real estate over the next three years estimated at more than Rs 232 billion.

In the last year Bangalore saw office space absorption of over 11.5 million sq ft—the highest among metros in India and probably the second highest in the world after Tokyo.

The discussion therein attributed the growth directly to: professional/technical approach of developers, greater level of transparency, quality of construction with a targeted long-term relationships focus and, last but not the least, that the Golden Triangle has a huge cauldron of in-house talent and attracts manpower from other states in India.

Ms Priya Chetty Rajagopal, Executive Committee member, IACC, said, “South India is getting to be a critical destination for investors, developers and funds, and with the confluence of demand, talent and availability, IACC considered it appropriate to have a seminar to track, examine and focus on implications of the boom in the region”

 Speaking on the issue of HR challenges in the real estate industry, Alexander Castelino, Director HR & Marketing of TSI Ventures, said, “The main HR challenges in today’s context are attracting the best talent with the limited quality human resources that are available in the market and retaining them in a competitive world where there are a plethora of opportunities in the job market.”  He also pointed out that, “To attract and retain the best talent, real estate companies should have a strong and trustworthy brand and need to adhere to best practices and competitive remuneration with an emphasis on performance and training and development.”  India has an immense retailing potential with a population of over 1 million spread over 50 cities. The real estate market in India is expected to grow at 33% through 2005 – 2010 from $12bn to $50bn.