Future of Real Estate in Bangladesh

The definition of living has changed during the Covid19 pandemic. Architects and engineers never thought of or given disabled access a priority in their design. Even a decade before, the average life expectancy in Bangladesh was below 60, and now it has risen to 73. So it is assumable that disable access-friendly homes are in rising demand. We are living at the pinnacle of scientific achievements, and the resources are limited. So if we do not adopt smart living, we will jeopardize our fate. Smart homes are the concept of integrating intelligent technologies into residential spaces aiming to increase the quality of life. The emergence of this concept is a promising solution for major concerns towards the building sector namely, energy consumption and environmental impacts. Smart homes target to reduce operational costs through efficient energy management. Binary sensors, Plasma sensors have to be integrated into our living standards. Today or tomorrow, technology usage has to be integrated into our lifestyle. Let’s take it up, you are using your geyser, and you keep it on all the time, so the emission of energy is always slowly wasted which we don’t notice. What if the energy was used for something else, maybe for your rice cooker or for your mobile charging?

Our idea of green living is either 3D rendered output or just hanging some plants on our balcony. This is not actually green living. Think of where you are living now. Before you living in this apartment maybe the place was green, a bush, a water body, or farming land. Now whatever the area is consumed to construct the building, you should pay back to the nature of what it belonged to. But how?

Until now we have to stumble upon three major problems within the real estate industry and certainly, we will discourse the solution and likely scenario shortly.

Let’s start with the people problem. In 2-3 years, the industry will see a drift change in selling methods. Small to mid-level companies will hire experts on a commission basis to sell their products, and the top-level companies will still have their own sales force. There will be third parties who will sell the developer’s products. The third-party will have its own sales force, administrative and offices to run the show, own method of pitching to its customers. A salesperson in a real estate company gets lots of queries but he is merely able to match the requirement. As a result, the salesperson lost the lead and starts looking for more leads to match the property. If these leads are taken care of by a third party then such loss will never occur as the company will work with multiple locations and multiple segments. At the end of 2022, there will be more or less 2-3 companies approaching the developer companies to undertake such an initiative. Initially, the third party will have to struggle to get a proficient salesperson on board assuming by the salesperson that his future is unsecured, but gradually the people will be interested to enjoy more cash and freedom to work. Once the practice is roll-out massively, the top developers will keep losing good sales professionals due to their salespeople switching towards the new but global concept, and eventually, the top companies will also come under the same trait. This practice will have both good and bad sides. Certainly, it will not be a piece of good news to those kinds of salespeople who are just hanging around the sector, poor in networking, poor in people skills, and less presentable to become a real estate agent. In the USA, Australia, UK, Canada, and India, real estate sales jobs are given to realtor companies. Sooner we will experience the same trait in our country.

The entire industry will have more or less than 200 professionals (while now there are more than 3000 professionals are working for different companies), who will have numerous leads and will settle any deal faster than what is a practice now. Buying a house is preferred by location and location requirements cannot be fulfilled by a single company. On the other hand, not all companies get good professionals due to many reasons, and sales professionals turnover is the highest in the real estate sector. Covid-19 has taught us how to control offices from home, so either these professionals will have a physical office or a virtual office whatever suits them better. Till now there is no institutional base education for this industry except Daffodil University. In the future, we will also witness institutes like TAFE where real estate professionals will be groomed. [to be continued…….]