Analysts build fortunes on realty boom

India Inc's booming realty sector is triggering an unprecedented demand for real estate analysts.

Demand for analysts, experts and consultants is not only emerging from brokerage houses and advisory companies, but also from merchant bankers, media, aviation and big corporate houses, which plan to develop their land-banks.

There, however, exists a shortage of professionals. According to Jai Mavani, executive director, KPMG India, "This is because, traditionally, the sector was opaque and did not have the scale and institutional involvement. After companies started hitting the markets and more realty-based financial products rolled out, the need for superior research and financial engineering arose."

KPMG has a team of 25-30 professionals, who specialise in real estate.

Management schools are the first to witness the change. This year, students of the Indian School of Business were flooded with lucrative offers from real estate consultancies and finance companies.

Mutual funds are also gearing up for infrastructure and real estate schemes, even though the latter has not yet received the regulator's nod. UTI Mutual Fund has already hired experts for infrastructure and would be exploring real estate schemes, once permitted.

Flying high with the winds of change, leading private airline Jet Airways is also scouting for real estate experts to gear up its proposed pilot training institute project.

The demand for analysts grew significantly after the realty sector was opened to foreign investment and companies tapped domestic and global capital markets to raise funds. Kirti Dalvi of Angel Broking feels that compared with other sectors, real estate analysts have to focus more on valuation part of the company.

"Valuing a land bank is different from the process followed in other sectors. A fresh talent choosing this area has to spend much time in adopting these skills. Few years back, this was not seen as a drawback, but now companies highly appreciate these skills," she said.

On the remuneration front too, analysts are having a good time. An analyst with 2-3 years of experience is drawing anywhere between Rs 8 lakh and Rs 10 lakh.