India is seeing a boom in the real estate sector. With this sector being the 2nd highest no of job openings in the country, finding good talent is a serious challenge being seen. Unlike the IT sector, real estate is not an organised sector. Prospective job seekers typically dont go shopping, however the offers being handed out today, are exceeding employer expectations. This has created an imbalance in supply and demand. As things stand, expectations are hitting sky high and most developers have yet aligned with such figures.
Real estate in India is largely family driven and hence often there is scepticism about meeting such high industry standards. From an employee perspective, the ideal time to negotiate salaries is when a couple of rounds of interviews are concluded and the employer is able to see clear value add in what the employee can bring to the business. The ask then doesnt appear as ill suited and its here that there can be an alignment of expectations vs propensity to match such demands.
From an employer perspective ideally CTC discussion should be done in early stages of discussion. If the candidate is able to satisfy the employer requirements, then a CTC which might otherwise seem high, appears more suitable. So the play is clearly in the timing from both sides.