With the city’s real estate market being dominated by smaller and unheard of players whose actions could fright away prospective buyers, the bigger players are joining hands to give a professional touch to the realty business. “We need to bring in additional people who are properly trained agents. This can be achieved by having a proper course to train real estate agents,” Puravankara Projects Limited (PPL) director Ashish Puravankara said during an interaction with the media here on Thursday.

The move, in a way, would decrease poaching in the sector. “At present, the industry is being steered by those who have been backed b almost40 years experience in the field. The real estate companies mainly pick employees from other companies in the absence of formal training schools. It is high time we have formal training for those entering the industry.” Puravankara said.

The PPL will pressure the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI) to roll out such training programmes, besides interacting with international experts on real estate.

PPL lately invited research specialist from Real Estate Institute of New York University to study the possibilities of identifying Bangalore as a key competitive city in the global economy.

Pointing to the happenings in Bangalore’s realty market, Puravankara said: “The demand for housing has not gone down in the current times in the backdrop of the global slowdown, but people have delayed their buying plans. With professionals around, these buyers could be converted.”

Agreeing with him, Pamela Hannigan, a research expert and member of Real Estate Institute of New York University, said “Students can lift up the capacity to navigate virgin territory through formal training and that will change the dynamics of the real-estate sector.”