Realty pros live it up on salary boost

BANGALORE: After turning around the fortunes of thousands of landowners, the Midas effect of India’s booming realty has rubbed off on another set of rising stars — real estate professionals.

Looking eye-to-eye with IT stalwarts, real estate companies have happily doled out generous increments to employees this year.

Bangalore-based Prestige Group, for instance, has handed out a 40% average salary hike across the board to employees. A couple of top guys are supposed to have raked in as much as a 60% hike this year. Says M Sooryakanth, vice-president(HR), Prestige Group, “The real estate industry is going through a phase of explosive growth, the kind the IT industry witnessed a couple of years ago.

The realty juggernaut is also attracting a lot of attention from big players like Reliance and Godrej and competition for the available pool of talent is set to intensify. Currently, attrition is high and quality manpower scarce therefore companies have to work harder to retain talent.”

Explains Ravi Ramu, executive director & CFO, Puravankara Projects, “Real estate is arguably the fastest growing industry in the country. And this is just the beginning of the boom. The demand for real estate professionals will only go higher. Puravankara plans to hire more than 1,000 engineers in the next 10-12 months. In the race for the best, builders and realty majors will be forced to be more transparent and more organised. The industry stands to benefit if it incorporates the learnings of the IT industry in the way it operates, communicates and remunerates.”

Agrees Juggy Marwah, V-P (sales), RMZ, “Real estate companies and builders in the country are now moving to adopt international best practices in the realty industry. RMZ, on its part, is adopting the variable and fixed salary component structure to reward achievers and retain talent.”

This year the average annual rise in compensation at RMZ ranges between 30-40%, he adds. Not to be left behind, Sobha Developers’ staff have been awarded a 20-40% rise in salary.