India's second largest real estate firm, Unitech has terminated the services of about 10 percent of its employees, following the slowdown in the industry. The reality sector is facing the heat of the global financial turmoil and is applying many cost cutting measures to mitigate its impact.

The company has also decided to stop fresh hiring of employees for the time being and it may revise the salary of employees to cut costs. The chairman of Unitech, Ramesh Chandra said, "Our normal attrition is there. Naturally we are not looking for replacements and we have let go trainees in over a period of 4-5 months." The company may also transfer some additional staff to its telecom venture, Unitech Wireless. Mr. Chandra said that its wireless arm still needs more work forces. However, he declined to give detail of the requirement.

Other reality firms including Parsvnath, DLF and Omaxe had also fired their staff besides salary cut in top and middle level management. Reality players demanded more fiscal measures from the government to increase demand in the domestic market. They asked for more interest rate cut on home loans to save the real estate segment.