The unprecedented boom in the new property India real estate sector has led to an increased demand for real estate professionals not only from the companies engaged in the business, but also from a large number of private equity funds, targeting the real estate sector, mutual funds, and research divisions of broking houses.

Like in other segments of the economy, it is a familiar problem faced by the real estate sector as well — demand for manpower far exceeding supply. According to KN Vaid, director general of Akruti Institute of Real Estate Management, there is a shortage of about 2 lakh professions in the sector.

“The real estate companies are facing a severe shortage of manpower in terms of experienced people who understand property business,” he says. “You can estimate the demand from the fact that we have about 18 post graduate students that will qualify as MBA in July 2007, we already have 2,000 offers for them from various companies. The industry is worried but is unable to do enough to groom professionals who understand real estate business. However, this is not just restricted to India, even UK, US or Canada have few real estate institutes,” he says.

According to reports, Fidelity Hong Kong that recently launched the Asia Pacific Property Fund, which seeks to invest in property equities, is also looking at hiring more property analysts in Mumbai office. Then there are also many professionals who after gaining experience in the sector have either joined real estate funds or launched their own funds.

Apart from various real estate and construction companies that have raised from India and abroad, there have been a host of private equity funds in the real estate sector that were launched last year and many new players are launching new such funds.

Besides this, mutual fund houses are awaiting regulatory clearance to launch real estate mutual funds. A study by Assocham, an association of Indian corporates, estimates the real estate sector to attract foreign investment worth Rs 8,000 crore in 2007.

Companies are increasingly looking for professionals in property business for services like valuation, equity research among others that can be done better by people who understand the business at the ground level.