By: Andrew Wong

September 10, 2005, New Straits Times (Malaysia)

WRITINGS are on the wall and in American newspapers that more and more
students are turning their attention to real estate as a career path.

In the late 90s, the rush was into IT as future entrepreneurs drooled
at the prospect of breaking into the dot-com game and making millions
from creating flashy websites with more pomp than presence. Today,
they're enamoured by real estate. Not just the selling of it, mind you,
but the whole spectrum, from development to management and investment.

A recent article in the Boston Globe quoted a San Francisco based real
estate investor as saying that "in 2000, everybody was flooding the
technology field ... now, you're seeing a rush of talent into real
estate".

While we can probably draw parallels with the way the dot-com bubble
exploded and the warnings about how the housing bubbles in the Western
world may soon also be popping, that hasn't stopped more and more
American business students from pursuing real estate.

That could be, as the newspaper pointed out, because "most of the real
estate curriculums at business schools are focused not only on local
residential markets, where many fear homes may be overvalued, but on the
rapidly globalising - and suddenly more lucrative - commercial real
estate market".

Among the courses being offered are those that can lead to jobs
involving business parks, condominium complexes, multi-use developments
as well as mortgage-backed securities and real estate investment trusts
not only in the United States, but around the world.

"'I'm telling my students they should go to places like Singapore," the
Boston Globe quoted Arthur Segel, a Harvard business professor as saying.
"The most interesting opportunities are in Asia and India. Real estate
developers are swarming over those areas."

Citing Thomas Lys, a professor with the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, the paper said, "MBAs go where the jobs are, and real estate is the place to be ... salaries in real estate have risen
considerably.

"Students who in the past would have considered anything less than Wall
Street unacceptable may now be going into real estate." In the local
context, our universities and business schools should take the cue from
what's happening in the US.

Certainly, we have the talent not only for use within our shores, but
which has the potential to be exported.

As G. Umakanthan said in his Focus story on the formation of the
Council of Asian Shopping Centres last week (PropertyTimes Sept 3 issue),
although we have been using expertise from the West to manage our
shopping centres, the style is "too cold for the Asian culture" and that
our people have the qualities to excel in it. All they need is to be
properly tutored in the art and science of mall management.

Uma also quoted Suresh Singaravelu, a delegate from India who was among
the hundreds of shopping centre experts from around the region witnessing
the council's formation, as saying that he hopes the CASC "will be able
to provide consultancy services for malls in the region".

"This is so Asian mall owners need not rely on more expensive and
culturally alien Western experts," Suresh said.

Obviously, the retail sector is just one portion of property services
that needs to be ramped up with new academic programmes to further
empower our talents. With the market fast evolving due to changing
consumer trends coupled with the advent of Real Estate Investment Trusts,
the creation of specialised developments and increased cross-border
investments, there is so much more to learn to stay on top of the game.

No doubt, our local educational institutions have excellent courses
that have produced world-class valuers, property managers and estate
agents, but they can't afford to rest on their laurels if they want more
people to maximise the potential of the industry and profit from it.

With right training, there is no reason why in time, we won't be able
to export our property services skills to foreign lands, much like how
our builders are now in demand from developing countries to construct
mass housing and infrastructure facilities. If they don't, it'll be yet
another reason why we'll need foreign help to manage our local assets.