Processing .....please wait.. 
The article has been forwarded.... 
Real estate slump may take away 20 percent jobs
By siliconindia
|
Monday, 22 December 2008, 17:06 IST |
6 Comments
Pune: Real estate sector in India is currently facing a hard time. If the trend continues for another six to eight months, 20 percent of the professional architects may lose their job, reported Business Standard. The affect may be more intensive as more than 90 percent of professional architects depends the real estate projects as per Indian Institute of Architecture (IIA) estimates.
The slump in this sector is likely to affect the architect professionals post June 2009. IIA currently has more than 15,000 practicing architects registered with it. These architects jointly employ more than five to seven lakh professionals. "Although there is a feeling of insecurity within the community, there have been no cases of heavy job cuts so far. However, a large number of projects have come to a halt, which is an alarming signal for our fraternity," said Vinay Parulekar, the newly-elected National President, IIA.
Presently, major architecture firms on an average demand 10 percent of the total project costs as fees from developers. But, developers are now asking the architects to lower the fees due to heavy cost escalation and project delays. Parulekar further added that it is purely a business aspect and the percent of fees charged are different by different architects. However, he also noted that the slowdown might help Indian architects as large developers are not keen on paying foreign architects henceforth.
Small architect firms are the most suffered during the tough time as they get fewer projects and there is delay in getting payments from developers also. "When projects suddenly get postponed or new ones are not launched, smaller companies find it difficult to make money and pay salaries to its employees. Hence, a large number of small firms appoint professionals and avoid 'employee'status so as to minimize the responsibilities of the firm," pointed out Hemant Gandhe, Chairman, IIA Maharastra chapter.
A prominent architect in Mumbai believes that there have been a large number of job cuts in this industry. But since many architects do not have the 'employee' status, the job cuts remained unnoticed.