REAL ESTATE PRICE DOWN

REALTY MBA SALARY UP

Right away, the country’s real estate markets need 6,000 professionals --- many of them realty MBAs.

Left high and dry with skyward interest rates and an overheated economy characterized by marked inflation from an increase in demand and a decrease in supply, prospective home buyers have put the real estate sector in a bind.

The situation may not improve until 2010 when the US recession would be near it's end and the subprime would have fizzled out.

Some of the cardinal reasons why real estate prices are coming down:

# Decline and fall price movement over the last three to six months in the central business districts in key cities has been flat

# Prices are expected to be flat in the near future

# Speculators moving out, end-users buying cautiously

# Commercial real estate supply to increase in coming six to eight quarters

# Interest rate cut would have triggered more demand, but with inflation inching upwards, demand for homes may not pick up.

# Input costs - steel, cement, building materials - have gone up, along with land price.

REALTY MBAs IN GREAT DEMAND

Riding on a wave of popularity which the fast growing IT, ITeS, retail and BFSI sectors enjoy, besides the growing infrastructure and hospitality sector, the Indian
realty market is expected to witness a massive demand for architects, realty MBAs and civil engineers.

While the market for the above three specialists will grow by 30% this year, as against 20% last year, that number will still be short of manpower requirement and hence the specialists salaries are expected to jump by as much as 15-20%.

For instance, the salary for a project director could be anything between Rs 70 lakh to Rs 1 crore per annum.

At the entry level, there could be a hike of 25%.