Outsourcing and the property business

Umesh Desai and Dominic Whiting reports in Forbes [ India outsourcing surge hits rich Asia's property ]. Due to current boom in the outsourcing and BPO industry in the region the property sector is also riding on the wave and making profits.




*For India, the influx of jobs due to "business process outsourcing" (BPO) is a shot in the arm for a property sector that had been languishing.



In 2004, 11 million square feet (1.022 million sq metres) of office space is expected to be taken up in India's five biggest cities, nearly twice 2002's 6.4 million.



"Two years ago the market was in the doldrums because of the India-Pakistan tensions and a global recession was not allowing multinationals to grow in emerging markets," said Chanakya Chakravarti, executive director at property services firm Cushman & Wakefield India.



"The BPO boom in the past two to three years has led to a resurgence in the Indian property market across segments."



Call centres and other information technology firms accounted for 82 percent of the total office space let in New Delhi and its surrounding areas in the first half of 2003. They took up 51 percent in Bombay and 81 percent in Bangalore.



The $3.6 billion industry is seen rocketing to $13.8 billion by 2007, with the number of jobs quadrupling to one million.*