Naredco MAHI set to lead India’s real estate transition, push for green buildings

Feb 26,2022

Women realtors and corporates in the Indian infrastructure and real estate sector are expected to lead the sector’s transition as it evolves into a more technology oriented and sustainable segment, said sector stakeholders addressing a convention of Naredco MAHI.

Naredco MAHI, the women’s wing of National Real Estate Development Council (Naredco) organised its first convention on the theme ‘Realty Women – The Transforming Catalyst to Real Estate Tentative Session Agenda.’

D Thara, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) stressed on the need for women to bring about different and new dimensions into property development and architecture. “It should be looked upon as to how we can break the way how the labour market operates. Why cannot a woman be a good mason? If a woman is made a subcontractor, it would make women workers from rural areas feel much safer.”

In the inaugural session, senior officials and industry representatives were largely of the view that women would bring about a novel dimension to the pandemic hit real estate sector and enable in fast-tracking the reforms and transitions in the evolving sector.

Surina Rajan, director general, Haryana Institute of Public Administration (HIPA) was of the view that women should take proactive steps in greater adoption and construction of green buildings, easing compliance norms among others.

The founder president of Naredco MAHI, Tara Subramaniam noted that as professionals, women in the real estate sector should think of modern and progressive ways for driving the sector towards growth. “There is a need for sustainable and climate conscious practices. With real estate contributing to 20% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, we can no longer turn a blind eye to the matter and must take more assertive steps for adoption of green building practices.”

Dr Ananta S Raghuvanshi, founder president elect of Naredco MAHI, with empowerment of women workers and entrepreneurs through MAHI’s initiatives, there would be a trickle down effect, as in turn it would support this evolving real estate sector along with boosting the economic growth.

Naredco president Rajan Bandelkar said, “Women have taken a lead in transforming and spurring growth in several sectors and real estate is set to benefit from their knowledge, insights and industrious attitude.”

Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri and Dr Niranjan Hiranandani, VC, Naredco addressed the event through online videos.

Perin Devi, Joint Secretary (IFD) in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Rajeev Talwar, chairman Emeritus, Naredco and Alok Gupta, DG, Naredco also addressed the event.

During the convention, Naredco MAHI highlighted the impact of women in the transformation of the facility management sector in India. It also described 2022 as ‘the year of gender inclusion in corporate India’.

Further, apart from the emphasis on a better gender parity in managements, Naredco MAHI plans to go big in terms of supporting the pink collared workers in realty comprising largely the labourers. Naredco MAHI plans to upskill at least 1,000 women every year and enhance the annual addition to the skilled labour base in times ahead.

The convention aimed at drawing focus on the contributions of women in real estate and preparing a roadmap for the industry to restructure itself in order to become a more inclusive and empathetic entity. Although women play significant roles across all the fields of real estate, there is a huge gap when it comes to the corporate sector and management-level positions and this gives Naredco MAHI and its initiatives all the more relevance and significance.

In line with the theme of the UN, the organisation aims to ‘break the bias’ in corporate structures and promote equitable work cultures.

Launched in September 2021, the women’s wing of Naredco has outlined 10 ‘E’s as its focus areas. These focus areas include education, equality, environment, empowerment, expansion, entrepreneurship, empathy, engagement, excellence and ethics.

Under its vision for education, the industry body aims to empower women in real estate with certification courses and workshops including public speaking, health & wellness and industry best-practices. It would create opportunities for women at the grassroots levels by providing skill-based courses in different fields of the real estate industry.

At a time when the Centre is planning a paradigm shift in terms of urban planning in the country, Secretary for the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) Manoj Joshi said that women stakeholders in India’s real estate sector including developers and urban planners can play a major role in bringing about urban planning across the country. “We need more and more urban planning capacities to come in. This is an area women have got more scope. Although there are major focus on roads, hospitals and other physical infrastructure, the human aspect in planning is very less,” he said.

He asked the industry to focus also on the aspects of environment, water and transportation in urban planning. Talking of the developments in the industry, he said that stamp duties have come down and stressed on the need for further decline in the duties.

Gautam Chatterjee, founder chairman, MahaRERA was of the view that although there is lesser representation of women in the management of real estate companies, the sector is not dominated by men. “There are several surveys that suggest that companies with higher percentage of women in leadership roles perform better. He also stressed on the need for faster adoption of technology in the real estate space.”