The Hindu : Karnataka News : For a global presence

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Saturday, Mar 14, 2009
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Karnataka

Karnataka

For a global presence

Farook Mahmood, former president, National Association of Realtors-India, at the Bangalore course in broker management

The first convention of the National Association of Realtors – India chapter (NAR-India), at Pune recently saw developers and realtors from all over India discuss issues dogging the real estate sector. Farook Mahmood of Silverline Realty (former president NAR-India and president, Bangalore Realtors Association of India) shared some information on the significance of this meet in an interview with Ranjani Govind.

What does this convention mean for the realtor segment?

Around 300 realtors and 50 developers attended this convention. Such meets help in professionalism and transparency. This is vital in today’s world of global standards.

Convention highlights…

Three courses were conducted as part of the convention. They covered broker management, international real estate management, and commercial real estate management. Trainers from the U.S. conducted them. Gail Lyons, Regional Director, National Association of Realtors-USA and Byron Smith, IREM, and John Stalk, CCIM, conducted the courses in Pune, Bangalore and Delhi.

The Bangalore course…

Bangalore concentrated on broker management. It covered case studies to illustrate the art of real estate broking. It comprised costing, management, guidelines on international practices, Indian markets vis-À-vis the U.S. markets, realtor members, manager analysis, business planning, creating policy manuals, personal agreements, responsibilities to public, achieving profitability, sales training, professionalism, goal setting, research and evaluation, and defining the mission statement.

The realtors got certification courses to enrich their knowledge. NAR-India is entering into a collaboration with the National Housing Bank to disseminate information on market trends and property prices wherever NAR-India has affiliates. NAR-India has affiliates in eight cities, and is planning to tie-up with CREDAI to work on issues related to the property industry. NAR-India is now on the board of the International Consortium of Real Estate Associations.

NAR-India’s future plans?

This segment needs more associations across the country. The association has 800 members and plans to treble its membership shortly. Global practices and quality service that meets world standards are what members will be exposed to. Only this sort of competence will help us address global markets now.

This July, we will be conducting courses on ‘Property Appraisal’ in collaboration with the Appraisal Institute of Canada. The National Housing Bank has shown interest in being a part of this venture.

The current slowdown…

This is a cyclical phase that will pass. It is a good time for end-users to buy that dream home as prices have corrected between 15 and 30 per cent. By next year end, the existing stocks will be absorbed and consequently property prices will start going up again.

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