Considerations Regarding the Economic Evolution and the Real Estate Industry – part II
If we discuss further on the two most important pylons that generated the crisis (the financial crisis and real estate industry), we should follow also the necessity of their restructuration under the human resource aspect.
In the last 5-6 years the explosive growth of the number of loans and the fight of the financial system for market shares lead to a sustained growth of the number of employees. Unfortunately, the Romanian learning system, whose quality dramatically declined in the last decades, could not supply enough specialists for this area. As many efforts and spending made the financial system; its employees were not at the required level for these moments. This fact is due to the fierce competition between banks when it comes to personnel hunting, conditions in which the wages offered to employees have been in some cases above the market level without any connection with the professional performance.
The crisis will make also in this area things to go back on the right track together with the inevitable process of consolidation of the financial system.
If we talk about the real estate industry, we should make a difference between the construction industry and the real-estate consultancy. As we know, many Romanians emigrated after the opening of the Shengen doors and many of them work or qualified in this field. Unfortunately, in Romania, with little exceptions, the companies did not have access to qualified personnel and hired individuals with unemployed profile. Nevertheless, I believe that a great deal of companies operating in this field will disappear because of this crisis and the number of unemployed will significantly rise in this sector.
Regarding the real-estate consultants, in this field were hired persons with communication and sales skills, and persons with a “high appetite” for fast gains, without the obedience of specific ethical standards or continuous efforts of improving the professional level being necessary. Currently, their number was drastically reduced and probably the quality of consultancy will rise, remaining in this field only the ones that are or who they could become truly professionals.
An important aspect about the valuation consultants (their number raised spectacularly in the last years, primarily as an answer at the demand of the banking system): I believe that a large number did not understand that valuation is a consultancy activity, it assumes continuous preparations, professional and ethical standards, and not just selling a regular product (merchandise), serial and made to order valuation. The ones that are part of this category will have difficulties concerning their activity in this area. I believe that for the valuation-consultants the role of professional association ANEVAR will be important in the creation of a barrier at the entrance in this profession, because of the requirements and the quality needed by the new regulations that will inherently appear in the financial industry in the aftermath of crisis.
Dr. ec. Adrian Crivii, FRICS, MAA
