W e’ve all heard of posh apartments and villa units which come with numerous luxury facilities such as barbecue pits, sun decks, private swimming pools and concierge services. While these features cater to the prominent ‘luxury’ category in real estate, there is another factor that clearly demarcates a luxury home from an ultra-luxury unit: customisation.
From certain developers and luxury builders offering to make minor changes within the built unit, we now have companies who, based on your requirements, will build your luxury home from scratch. Take city-based Spero Realty for instance, who offer not more than 12 apartments in a single project, with most capping at three or four private residences. “Depending on the stage of purchase, we can customise entire floor layouts or even interior aspects such as flooring and ceiling finishes,” says Puneet Gupta, Director, explaining how at their new project at Thiruvanmiyur, buyers can design the entire layout based on their needs.
What’s on offer
Individuality goes a long way and uniqueness is much sought after in this segment. Customers who prefer premium locations also prefer boutique style apartments where there are not too many units in a single building. The features offered show the difference between a basic luxury brand and an ultra-luxury home, says Gupta. And no doubt, this involves a constant focus on what the client wants. “We incorporate suggestions and changes during the construction phase. These include small changes like adding a home theatre or more elaborate requests such as modifying the bathrooms to changing the position of the front door,” he explains.
A Shankar, COO, Strategic Consulting at JLL India explains how ultra-luxury developers offer customisation of floor plans, interiors and even the materials used. Other features include energy efficient warm LED lightings, vertical and roof gardens, smart centralised vacuum systems, high-end modular kitchens, Italian marble, centralised AC system, digital lock door, automatic curtains and decorative cornices. “Such homes are often termed as ‘branded homes’ and come with renowned concierge services. A majority of homes in this segment are sold on an invitation-only basis,” says Shankar.
Classic features
Experts highlight how today, depending on the size of the project, most developers entertain a certain degree of customisation. Even Olympia Group, another city-based developer, offers its high-end customers the option to design their apartment from scratch: from designing and the layout to the flooring and finishing, everything can be done by-order. Chandrakant Kankaria, Director, says prominent custom-made features requested by buyers include branded fittings and wall finishes, altering the apartment size, facilities such as home automation, security systems, private lounges and elevators, to name a few.
The design element of such a home is extremely crucial. A project is expected to look like an individual home and not an apartment the importance of parking space, aesthetics, landscaped areas along with entertainment and social areas, needs to be kept in mind too.
Top areas
With reference to Chennai, luxury apartment prices range from ₹18,000 to ₹24,000 per sq. ft., says Rajat Johar, Head, Residential services, CBRE. Central locales such as Nungambakkam, Egmore, Royapettah, Alwarpet, Poes Garden, Gopalapuram and MRC Nagar are prominent hotspots for custom-made homes. Given the niche cost factor involved, elite group such as NRIs, HNIs, UHNIs, celebs, businessmen and officials in top multinational companies are primary takers.
Luxury watch
When asked how the segment is faring across the country, Shankar explains how, only 4% of India’s population are in the MIG and above category. If we skim off the ultra-luxury segment, it would be below 1%. “The price of ultra-luxury housing has only seen a minimal appreciation as it is targeted to only a specific group. Sale velocities are lower as well: 10 to 15 units per year. Keeping in mind the percentage of buyers in ultra-luxury segment, the share of supply is below 1% when compared to the overall housing supply in Chennai,” he says.
But given that the government’s focus is now on affordable housing, what is the future of luxury/ultra-luxury? According to a Global Wealth Report, since 2000, wealth in India has grown 9.2% per annum, faster than the global average of 6% even when taking into account population growth of 2.2% annually. A statistic which most developers take as a positive sign for the luxury segment’s growth.
The segment has faced a paradigm shift, post the economic reforms we have witnessed in recent years, says Arun Mn, Founder, Casagrand. Bengaluru has outstripped Hyderabad and Chennai in the demand on housing sector in this quarter which includes Ultra-luxury segment too. “One in four luxury houses sold in India last fiscal was bought by an NRI or non-resident Indian. Policy reforms such as demonetisation and RERA have made it easier for NRIs to invest here. Increased accountability, transparency and compliance systems have proven beneficial,” he adds.
