Affluent Indians make a beeline for branded residences

Santhosh KumarJLL India Realty developer ABIL Group recently entered into a partnership with global fashion design house Versace to design interiors of its luxury residential project on Hughes Road in south Mumbai. While the project details will be revealed in early 2016, this is not the first time a foreign brand has partnered with an Indian developer to offer state-of-the-art facilities. As urban consumers seek fashionable amenities in their residences, ‘branded homes’ are quickly gaining prominence in India. Typically, these are luxurious apartments combined with hospitality services provided by the likes of Hyatt, Four Seasons, Le Meridian and JW Marriott, renowned globally for their superior hospitality services. Some other apartments are joint-ventures with well-known fashion houses such as Armani and Swarovski, which lend their names while designing the interiors. Indian developers have started to tie-up with international brand names from early 2010 and the trend of partnership with such brand names is increasing by the year. Typically, projects in this category, to maintain exclusivity, resort to less number of units. Such developers prefer to choose prime residential locations, preferably in tier-I cities. Also, such projects have a tendency to command 25-30% higher prices than the average for the sub-market, depending upon the branding and facilities.The increase in India’s economic prosperity has increased the number of ‘super-rich’ people in the country, a number that has grown by more than 200% in the past 10 years, and now accounts for 3% of the world’s multi-millionaires. As a result, luxury consumerism has continued to increase. Very often, exclusivity is expressed through luxury spending, which is shown through the wearing of premium apparel, fine dining at expensive restaurants, buying of expensive cars and also owning a luxurious home.Timeline: First Branded Project Launches In Different CitiesStatus and demonstration of success are the decisive factors for the rich, especially the nouveau riche, when buying these properties. Investment-driven purchases are very few in this segment. Luxury space with commensurate amenities in top locations and targeted at the right class of people ensures that demand in this niche segment market is met with the right product.More developers are now working on this segment and more launches are expected in the coming months. While the top developers are roping in international designers to build luxury residences in tier-I cities, lesser known developers are employing well-known domestic designers to do the same in tier-II cities.