The scrapping of Urban Land Ceiling Act (ULCA) in Maharashtra is opening up opportunities even for premier global real estate certifying bodies in India. London-based The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has placed a proposal before the finance ministry to start internationally accredited university courses in the country to create more regulated real estate professionals and provide qualified certificates on the lines of global practices. RICS is planning to partner with Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), Delhi-based School for Planning and Architecture (SPA), Ahmedabad-based Centre for Environment Planning and Technology (CEPT) and Pune?s National Institute of Construction Management and Resource (NICMR) to conduct various global university courses at their respective institutes, RICS chief executive Louis Armstrong told FE.

?We are planning to bring in global university courses in Indian real estate, specifically from Cambridge University of England, Tsinghua University of China, Massachusetts University of Germany apart from from Hong Kong University and also provide MBA finance certification in real estate,? Armstrong said.

RICS is associating with Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj and Colliers International to spearhead its plans to partner with various institutes in India.

?Taking advantage of the scrapping of ULCA where 30,000 hectares of land is expected to be released, we have decided to strongly focus on the Indian market. We intend to create 5,000 trained real estate professionals in India in sync with the global talent in the next five years,? he informed,

For the purpose, RICS is looking at creating its new offices in five metro cities in the next five years. ?This is because we feel that during the period, private firms would look at releasing more land for real estate development, and, there should be enough talent by then to handle the growing real estate needs, specifically low cost housing,? Armstrong opined. RICS has recently held talks with ICICI Bank, RIL and the Tata Group.