Mumbai’s affluent buyers will settle for nothing less than 5BHKs

While many developers are working overtime to offload pending stocks at the bottom and middle end of the realty market, a select few are finding ready buyers for sprawling homes that come with a price tag to match.

While big, sprawling flats with an area of more than 2,000 sq ft were restricted to tony areas of South Mumbai until a decade ago, the concept has travelled to different parts of the city to house a new set of affluent consumers.

A five-bedroom home is the ultimate symbol of luxury in a space starved metropolis like Mumbai. While a 5BHK flat in suburban Goregaon or Powai costs upwards of Rs6 crore, the price escalates to Rs12 crore for a similar flat in Bandra, going up to Rs15 crore in central Mumbai areas like Parel, Worli and Shivaji Park, and costing as much as Rs40 crore for a 4,000 square feet home in South Mumbai’s Malabar Hill and Peddar Road areas.

As much as sprawling designer homes are a ticket to exclusivity for buyers, they make for a far more profitable venture for developers. “A developer of a premium project makes more profit selling one big flat to a high net worth buyer than the developer who sells ten affordable homes to budget-conscious buyers,” noted an industry observer, adding that even knocking 15% off the quoted price to push a sale in current market conditions makes for good strategy for a top-end project.