Insights

Those of us who have been in the real estate business for a long understand how much of a hands-on approach and unwavering focus is required for all facets of operations in every single project. Spreading one-self over several geographies, therefore, requires the organization to be completely driven by systems and processes with operations stream-lined to perfection – this obviously is easier said than done.

The court has taken a great step in ordering the banks and financial institutions to audit books of developers and check the trail of the developer's contribution. Gone are the days when the developer will be able to do a project without his own contribution; “ OWN meaning OWN “ Ah ! at last AUDIT started in this industry which will help all and will bring back security to the customer's money.

Allow me to share with you my own experience of rented versus my own home. I bought my own home 7 years ago after living in rented accommodation and changing 4 houses before buying my own. The mental make-up of a person in a rented house undergoes a change after owning a home. In a rented home, I was tolerant, or worse, careless and lazy about the conditions of the house. It’s leaking taps, wearing paint on the walls, loose hinges of the kitchen cabinets, etc. These things somehow were not my priority but I would wear good clothes and focus on the external display.

As we all are aware that in the current scenario, developers talk & promise utilities, amenities & services (Facilities) that shall be provided in the complex. Accordingly, they plan, design & deliver as well but at the time of managing the show, all these Facilities are handed over to a Facility Management Agency. These Agencies are bound by a flimsy agreement and generally unable to deliver the desired. All the hype & promises that were made by the developers, unfortunately, never get fulfilled and this results in a huge gap and resentments. So just by managing the facilities, we won’t be able to achieve what is desired.

Today’s modern world is primarily crafted by businesses. The economy, the industrialization, the lifestyle, and in fact every aspect of today’s human life is organized through businesses. They manipulate human behavior by treating everybody as a consumer. But this is the first time in the history of the modern world, where the consumers are behaving differently. With this lockdown scenario, the consumers are maintaining a distance from all kinds of businesses. So, what are we forecasting here? Will all the businesses be wrapping up? Will they go into loss-making? Is everyone going to lose his/her job? Well, I don’t think so. However, it will take a lot of time for the businesses to mend their consumers again. But the consumers of the 21stcentury are quite matured, so the enterprises can swim against any tide.

The real estate industry is facing a difficult situation with high property prices and low demand. This coupled with the tight lending environment and the high-interest rate has strained the industry. Demand for Real Estate is a derived demand and as such several announcements of Govt for eg RERA Act have a direct and indirect negative impact on the sector. The Real Estate Industry is neither a fully organized sector nor an unorganized sector. For many, it’s a family managed sector with a very narrow perspective. Largely, the customer experience from this Industry is over-promised but under-delivered. Unusual and strange competition is the dominant feature.

PMC, internal as well as external, plays important role in projects and provides the effective management solutions to increase and improve the efficiency and outcome (in term of cost and time) at every stage of the project life cycle (i.e. from inception to completion of projects if PMC appointed timely) and creating a win-win situation for all stakeholders PMC manages the Project by application of their Knowledge, Skills, and Experience at various stages. However, at the same time, PMC also has to face various challenges like Design Issues, Constructability Issues, Long lead material Issues, Inter Contractor Coordination Issues, Engineering Issues, Safety Issues, etc which can be tackled only by a well organized and multi-dimension approach of the PMC. 

The Real Estate industry has undergone a sea change in India. A massive transformation from single-unit houses to vertical condominiums has taken place in the 1990s onwards until the booming market from 2000 to 2008. One has seen and experienced first-hand the wild buoyancy of the market, where nuclear families were fast emerging from within the vast Indian middle-class socio-economic segments. Thus, the demand for apartments in the huge “group-housing” sector grew by leaps and bounds. This also led to rampant speculation in the mid-level investor categories. So much so, that the prices started to get inflated artificially.