At home, abroad
SAMYABRATA RAY GOSWAMI Mumbai, June 2: India’s super rich are rubbing shoulders with the world’s wealthy as they shop for their own slices of the global village, from the Empire to the Emirates.
After Shah Rukh-Gauri, it is now the turn of Abhi-Ash to get a home in Dubai, one of the hottest destinations for the global glitterati on the hunt for a dream home.
On Friday evening, Bollywood’s most celebrated couple were introduced to the other elite owners of Sanctuary Falls — a 96-villa super luxury community complex in Dubai — at the 7-star Burj Al Arab hotel.
“It’s so close to Mumbai, we’ll probably be spending a lot more weekends here,” agencies quoted the junior Mrs Bachchan as saying of the villa, Abhi-Ash’s first big joint investment. The villas, measuring 5,600-10,600sqft each, are priced between Rs 17.4 crore and Rs 40.6 crore. At Rs 31,000-Rs 38,000 per square foot, the deal is a steal as the cost of real estate in Mumbai’s fashionable addresses is far higher.
It will take the couple as much time to reach their newly acquired weekend home from Mumbai as it will take Pa Amitabh to drive down to his farmland in Lonavala, near Pune, 180km away.
Last August, Shah Rukh was reported to have been gifted a property by the Prince of the UAE on the Palm Jumeirah, one of three palm-shaped islands being built off the Emirates’ coast. When fully completed, the three islands will have a large number of residential, leisure and entertainment centres. King Khan and wife Gauri will have as neighbours Victoria and David Beckham.
Well-heeled Indians are paying as much as others, among them singer Justin Timberlake and tycoon Richard Branson, for property in the United Arab Emirates.
“Many are buying property in Dubai because it has no taxes and it’s only two and a half hours from Mumbai,” says Syed Miraj, the India agent in Mumbai for Dubai’s real estate firm Better Homes. “I get 15 enquiries a month and four or five of them end up buying.”
An added attraction is the easy availability of residence visas for property buyers in the Emirates.
No wonder then that it is not just the rich and famous who are coughing up the crores for exclusive private getaway residences.
“It started years ago as isolated forays by elite members of India’s financial and business community who bought a second house abroad. Now, with India’s economic boom, it has grown into something much bigger,” says Sunil Bajaj, a Pune-based property consultant who liaises for foreign real estate agencies.
“Global realty players who made a beeline to tap the Indian real estate market are now wooing Indians to shop for property overseas,” he adds.
Mumbai’s high net worth individuals — who already hold prime properties in the city that cost as much as those in upmarket Manhattan (New York) or Mayfair (London) — are being chased by global marketers of luxe properties.
“Over-supply and the sub-prime crisis in the US have led to a dip in prices of high-end properties in the US, Spain, Italy and at certain places in France, making them more affordable,” says Jaideep Singh, head of the India desk at property consultant Knight Frank.
Growing interest has forced Savills, Knight Frank’s main competitors in London, to set up an India desk and hold a roadshow of luxury properties in the country.
Beachfront villas in Mauritius and Miami, country cottages in the UK, island homes in Dubai, posh apartments in Melbourne or snazzy condos in Singapore — the affluent in Mumbai are now spoilt for choice.
Recently, London realty service provider Aylesford International pitched its latest premium project — hillside and beachfront villas in Mauritius — to affluent city customers who received exclusive special invites for the presentation.
The presentation by Aylesford marketing director Camilla Mabbott, to 100 high net worth individuals, over dinner at a five-star hotel was such a success that the firm “scrapped plans for taking the road show to other countries”.
“India is where we started marketing the project first because of its unique growth story. Our 50 beachfront villas costing between Rs 18 crore and Rs 35 crore with freehold plots of 0.8 to 1.25 acres were all sold out right here,” she says.
Most buyers, however, are not looking at these extravagant buys only as investment opportunities to park surplus funds.
“The new age Indian is big on splurging and a luxe home abroad, especially in a trendy place, adds to the flaunt quotient. For some, though, it is an expenditure for the convenience of staying in one’s own home during business travel to cities like London, New York, Dubai, Singapore or Melbourne,” says Singh of Knight Frank.
Ask Kanta Chatterjee, 70, of Pali Hill, who owns two apartments in Kensington, London — “one for each of my two sons”.
“In these days of globalisation, children need a base in important cities abroad where they conduct their business,” she said.
Northwood in West London is said to have become the most expensive place in the world, thanks to Indian investment. Encouraged, Knight Frank as well as Hamptons and Savills, Britain’s top-end estate agencies, have despatched staff to India to sell London property.
“The concept of the world as a global village is perhaps best exemplified by Indians today in the world’s property markets,” says Bajaj of the Pune firm.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080603/jsp/frontpage/story_9357877.jsp
the kind of money they are burning, i wonder if the income tax-walleh are mar-ing enough chapa on them?
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