More than five million people in the US are employed in real estate fields such as title insurance, construction, mortgage banking, brokerage and development.

Back home in Calcutta, several million square feet of real estate development are underway. The New Town in Rajarhat would add around 50 million square feet of residential and commercial infrastructure in the next five to seven years.

Besides, there would be another 50-60,000 acres of development, which has already been announced, and would include townships and special economic zones in Calcutta and on its outskirts.

This frenetic brick-and-mortar activity is throwing up a lot of career options. Propertt scans categories of trained manpower required with the necessary attributes.

Sales

The required skill set is the same as in any other industry. However, there are certain sales functions where candidates need to have technical exposure or relevant qualifications. Real estate sales cover a range of products, which include residential and commercial properties, projects, business development, investment and electro-mechanical functions.

The average qualifications needed vary from graduates to postgraduates in sales and marketing and technical degrees in engineering depending on the position.

The industry prefers current exposure in real estate, but is open to recruitment from other industries, too, because of dearth of manpower with formal real estate exposure.

Marketing

As real estate projects are becoming more and more like consumer products and have to compete for mind-space, marketing has a vital role. So big players are setting aside millions of rupees to just market their products, both within India and abroad.

This stress on marketing has thrown up the need for people with relevant postgraduate degrees or several years of exposure in the field.

This year, real estate companies like DLF and Unitech have reportedly recruited business graduates from top management institutes like the IIMs. Professionals are also being hired from within the industry and from other sectors.

Finance and related jobs

With huge projects being rolled out, the industry needs seasoned finance professionals.

Expected qualifications are CA, MBA finance, CFA and cost accountants, depending on the job content.

To put it in perspective, a 1 million-square-feet mall requires approximately Rs 250 crore — excluding land cost — to construct. The amount goes up to Rs 500 to 600 crore, minus cost of land, if the plan is to build a 500-room five-star hotel.

For a 100-acre multi-use development, the amount goes up further — Rs 1,000 to 2,000 crore (again, excluding cost of land).

Needless to say, finance and finance-related functions are by far the most important backend jobs and require trained professionals.

Their main functions would be:

a) Working out the financial feasibility of a project in association with the marketing department

b) Organising and coordinating loans from banks and financial institutions

c) Organising equity for the project or for the organisation either through public offers/private equity fund/private placement/FDI, etc.

d) Managing accounts.

Construction and design

The burgeoning sector has thrown open opportunities for professionals with degrees or diplomas in civil, mechanical and electrical engineering, architects, town planners, designers, supervisors and construction managers.

Most vacancies in these categories are available with large construction firms like Shapoorji Pallonji, HCC, Simplex Infrastructure, Ahluwalia Constructions and Gherzi Eastern.

Big-budget developers, who have in-house technical teams, also recruit professionals in these categories.

Generally, vacancies at supervisory/middle and senior management levels are filled up through lateral recruitment from within the industry.

Project management

As the size of the development increases and the features and benefits match international standards, facility management professionals are being lapped up at never-before salary levels. The same holds true for project management professionals.

This aspect of real estate development requires hospitality and administrative professionals and security experts, besides, of course, mechanical, electrical and civil engineers.