Baleshwar Sharma, MD E-Square International

Q. You have been working since the last 18 years as a real estate consultant. What made you to take up the role of a real estate consultant?

A. I have been in this industry for the last 18 years. Initially things were very unorganised. Real Estate Industry needed professionals who could deal in a professional manner maintaining transparency and authenticity. It was the need of the hour, which I took up as a challenge and excelled in.

Q. Real Estate market is facing downfall. What is the response from the market and from your clients?

A. I would not term it as a downfall. This had to happen. It’s the bubble, which had to burst. At the rate the prices were skyrocketing, no one had any control of it. It’s a slowdown but as far as the commercial leasing market is concerned, there are companies sitting on higher rentals, which are now looking at new areas where the rentals have dropped. So there is still a lot of activity in the market. It is all about being aware of your client’s needs and requirements.  However, I would like to add here that there has been a correction in the market in terms of the rates.

Q. Your clients are spread across India as well as abroad. How do you integrate the comfort and convenience that is to be given to the clients.

A. Comfort comes from the trust factor that has been imbibed in them through the way we work and operate. Convenience is what the clients experience because our in-house teams of professionals work round the clock for the benefit of our clients by maintaining complete transparency, professionalism and privacy in each transaction.

Q. There are a number of consultants and dealers available in the market. How is E- Square International different from the rest of its competitors?

A. We at E- Square International have successfully created a reputation of being the best in the market for achieving the zenith of client satisfaction through favourable negotiations, good property options, professional services, effective after-sales support and timely deliverables.

Q. What’s your advice to the potential

buyers/investors?

A. My only advice is to start looking at buying properties at a long-term prospective, as the properties are at an all time low. I would also tell them to negotiate hard and try to get the best deal being offered by the seller/builder.

Q. How do you rate yourself in the current scenario?

A. We have a huge amount of experience in dealing with Corporates, MNC’s, Retailers and Hi-Net Worth Individuals at various levels and this has given us hands-on-approach on transaction practices. We are one of the pioneers in commercial leasing and are doing well even in this scenario.

Post caring for ‘Brand’ another milestone has evolved that brings to the buyers’ prerogative the option of “SMALL BUILDERS”. It is fine. Any trustworthy “Small Builder” may deliver a “good product” but what we need in this segment of products is that it also has to be ‘MATURE’ – in all faculties of real estate.

A word of advise, to Gen Next or the new ‘ENTRANTs’ or small developers —they should concentrate on making his project self-driven rather than building on others’ image. Image is based on how well one’s projects sell. To begin with, the focus should be to keep the prices comparatively on the lower side. Additionally, he might have to offer a degree of services that most other builders would not. He might even consider cutting down on the time of processing. It usually takes time to complete all legal formalities, and clearing all the queries related to a specific property. Thus lesser time of delivery would be an additional service which increases the buyer’s comfort level and also makes the builder more reliable in the eyes of the buyer.

As there’s no set rule in this trade, try various modus operandi  to earn success in the real estate market. So as it is a world of BEWILDERNESS and chaos, a good fire-fighting approach will always yield well.

In very critical marketing situations, a smart approach would lie in “lateral thinking” – taking a chance with unequally different approaches.

There’s no “INVENTING THE WHEEL” truth in this trade. Effective real estate consultants turn around fortunes of ailing projects and developers by virtue of creative and innovative ideas.

For the sake of consolidation, in this sector, by ‘Small Builders’ in particular, the ‘New ENTRANTS’ will shape up the business scenario by maturing in due course of time.

The Real Estate sector has witnessed some changes of late, which have primarily been brought about due to MICRO Economic DYNAMICS. In this trade, the phase of maturing has been set in motion with speculators giving way to actual end-users; with tier II and III cities realizing their potential.

A logical analysis suggests that the pent-up demand and rates are in the process of being rationalized, indicating MATURITY in the sector.

Better life style is today’s demand. To provide ready solutions, the trend of supply in the form of customized opinions is on the rise. This trend aims at value addition, which is good for real estate.

Focus on core competencies, strategic partnerships, public–private JVs (PPP), will certainly ensure consolidation, and that is weeding out certainly some aspects of bewildered state of affairs by increasing the maturity of the trade.

“Demystifying” – it is neither a word well explained in “Oxford” Dictionary or an American slang or even a German coding, but it certainly stands for countering “BEWILDERNESS”.

I was introduced to this concept of realty mystification in relation to a property holding that was with my family (as I hail from a family of Zamindars) and later when it got abolished.

But I was exposed to this concept in the true sense of the word while I was in Germany during the 1980s. There I witnessed Banking Support Services in order to develop this trade; which is not in practice in the Indian scenario.

Later in US, I found ‘System’ change in the West-Coast California or the States of Southern US, for example, Atlanta, Gorgia, etc.

To conclude, the need of Demystification is – Real Estate Project; I found ‘Nowhere’.

Very strange of Gaddafi in Libya, he fought for free housing for all, just as water and air and had propounded “no ownership” of land that is also included in the list of basics. He made more than 10,000 lakhs of housing units in Sirt, Misurata, Albeida, Benghazi, Mahmoora, Zevia, Zeda, etc. WHICH WAS FREE FOR THE LIBYANS. It was the STATEHOOD and no demystification was needed at all.

So, I would like to take-up this issue seriously so that there is no major loss to either the builder or the end-user.