Where The Rich Live In India
Super-luxury apartments are back in vogue and they are bigger and better than ever before
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As India's economy has gained momentum over the past several months, super-wealthy corporate professionals and businessmen are once again ready to pay $1 million or more for their dream homes. That can buy apartments with five bedrooms or more spread over 5,000 to 10,000 square feet and with amenities like personal lap pools and jogging parks in the sky.
From gold tiled bathtubs to sky-high verandas, luxury living is back. Following a market lull in 2008, India's wealthy class is again dishing out top dollar for luxury apartments.
Home builders are rushing to meet this demand. At least a dozen super-luxury apartment complexes are being built across India right now, mostly in the major metro cities of Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.
The recent flurry of activity is a sharp reversal from early 2009, when the luxury housing segment was all but abandoned as the Indian economy's growth slowed. Developers had to slash
apartment prices by 30% to 40% in February and March 2009, in order to find buyers, says chief executive officer of a real-estate services firm.
Some market experts are now getting worried about prices, which they say have reached near peak-2007 levels. Given that, and the huge upcoming supply, there could be downward price pressure on these apartments over the next few months.
In south Mumbai's Lower Parel neighborhood, for instance, around 10 million square feet of area is likely to be freed up for building high-end apartment buildings, according to an estimate by Religare Capital Markets Ltd. To create enough demand for these apartments, prices need to drop by 20% to 25%, says Suhas Harinarayan, managing director and co-head of research at Religare Capital Markets.
While
real-estate prices are tough to predict, buyers might benefit by waiting for a few more months. When many of these apartments come to market at the same time, they can get better prices, say consultants.
Buyers who don't want to wait are still getting a better deal than they were before the downturn, because developers are providing more value for the same price.
Builders are more focused on providing high-quality finishes and the best of amenities in their complexes. They are using Italian marble instead of cheap tiles, German bathroom fittings instead of Indian ones, and high-quality internal finishes of Burma teak floors. It's also common to now get high-quality air-conditioning, home automation systems with touchscreen controls, and in some cases,
fully-furnished apartments (with snakeskin tabletopsno kidding).
In addition, many luxury apartment buildings are now increasingly being managed by professional services companies. So, even at 11 p.m. residents can pick up the phone and have a plumber come to their home.
At the end of the day, however, the two most important features needed to term an apartment luxury remain: a ton of space and a prestigious address.
In India's financial capital, where space is limited in the posh south Mumbai area, developers are now building taller and taller buildings to provide the vast space associated with luxury. In Tardeo, Mumbai, builder S.D. Corporation Ltd. has built The Imperial twin towers at 827 feet above sea level, with apartments as large as 10,000 square feet. Some of these apartments have access to personal lap pools.
In the capital New Delhi, developers are restricted by government rules in building skyscrapers, especially in the most sought-after central and south Delhi areas. So, most of the luxury building activity is concentrated in the suburb of Gurgaon. The upcoming Magnolias project by DLF there promises views of the golf course while Saluja Construction's The Verandas tries to provide a sense of sanctuary in the concrete jungle by placing two wide verandas on either side of the apartment.
Other developers are coming up with different ideas to set their projects apart.
In Mumbai, Shree Ram Urban Infrastructure is focusing on providing an eco-friendly environment in its upcoming Palais Royale building in the Worli neighborhood. Promoter Vikas
Kasliwal says they plan to have rain-water harvesting, use solar energy to provide hot water to residents, and deodorize and dehumidify the air which will circulate within the building.
In Bangalore, duplex apartments in the Windmills of Your Mind project are built so that all living spaces open to terrace gardens. The developer, Total Environment Constructions Private Ld, gives buyers an online tool that allows them to customize everything in their apartment, including the type of flooring, landscaping and electric fittings. The rooftops of the seven buildings in the apartment complex have been connected with a "skywalk" above the 19th floor, and will be landscaped with trees and cobbled streets. It would be ideal for walks and jogging, says Alexander John Kurian, assistant vice president of marketing at Total Environment. The complex is in Whitefield neighbourhood, India's information technology hub.
Even if you have a ton of cash to buy these super-luxury apartments, you might not always be able to. Some developers are increasingly conscious about who will live in their apartments; the wealthier and more respected the residents, the more prestige it adds to the developer's brand. So, many of these luxury homes are invite-only.
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by: nitu
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