April 13, 2010

In order to face the competition from foreign rivals, the local brokers plan to renovate their image by turning themselves from brokers to consultants. To give a tough competition and appear professional, their idea is to transform their appearance. Laptop in hand, Necktie, some executive finesse and changed destination might assist the task of refurbishing the image.

Mr. Vibhoo Mehra,a broker from the western suburbs protested that they should not be addressed as real estate brokers. It sounds very downmarket. They should rather be called realtors or consultants. Even a conference took place on this concern which was attended by around 600 real estate agents.

Brokers must look professional and presentable is the belief of some panelists at the conference organized by the National Association of Realtors India (NAR).

NAR treasurer Kalpesh Shah said that not just the outlook will be changed; rather they want brokers to be well informed about their projects too. It will gain the attention of buyers. He also informed that the international broking firms are posing a threat to local brokers since they have started biting a chunkier share of the day-to-day brokerage pie.

City builders like Sunil Mantri, Niranjan Hiranandani and Pravin Doshi were also seen in the conference.

It is true that hiring foreign designers and planners have many advantages. But, the negative side of hiring them is that in some cases they do not understand the complexities of doing business in India, including tax laws and also cultural consideration , feels Devinder Gupta of realty advisory Century 21 India.
In an interview, Niranjan Hiranandani, the managing director of the Hiranandani group says that there is a big difference in approach between Indian and foreign firms that undertake design jobs. He feels that international firms are more empathetic to developers’ needs and aspirations. “They find a solution which is required for a particular site, location and land. They are also more in tune with the land use demand,” says Hiranandani. “They are more open to new ideas. On the other hand, Indian firms have a trial and error approach to design and planning. They also try to impose their ideas on the developers.”

Singapore based firms like RSP Architects Planners and Architects 61 Ltd are also designing projects in many big cities in India and are serious of winning more projects here. RSP has reportedly opened their offices in Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. It designed the international Tech Park in Bangalore.

It has also designed offices for IT giants like Wipro, Satyam and Microsoft. Devinder Gupta informs that legendry Unitech group has taken the services of great golfer Greg Norman to design the lush green golf course for their prestigious Unitech Grande project in Greater Noida. Clearly, the Indian realty firms are taking the services of foreign firms and experts to make their projects attractive.

Meanwhile, some Indian architects feel that global firms are definitely good when it comes to designing projects. But, they are critical of some of the mismatch. On many occasions, the initial designs done by them don’t make any sense. Finally, Indian architects have to enter the scene to undo the damage. CMD of Omaxe group, Rohtas Goyal says that with money starting to flow into Indian realty sector, it has become necessary to bring global architectural practices and expertise.

Moreover, customers fancy projects designed by overseas firms. From the developers’ point of view, it becomes a good marketing and sales proposition. It may be mentioned here that Omaxe has recently hired Indian Davis cup Star Leander Paes company to help them design the tennis courts in their residential projects. Those who follow the realty market of India feel that as competition hots up and properties get bigger, developers going to hire global architects to design their projects will become more frequent.

Moreover, builders are entrusting the design work for commercial projects and master planning of a mixed use developments to foreign firms.

It is also learnt that several developers choose foreign architects only for their large projects. Anil Sharma of Amrapali group said, “It is affordable to hire an international firm to master planning if there is a big volume of work. Time is never an issue with them. They keep their words”.
Meanwhile, there are some people in realty sector who feel that foreign firms will continue to win projects here, but they will be hired for a limited purpose. They would design the master plans of the projects, while the execution part would continue to be taken care by the Indian firms.