Luxury amenities in the apartment market. What do you aspire for?

Snapshot at Lodha Bellissimo Mumbai

In India the useful life of an apartment is about 30 to 40 years as per most studies by experts. This is primarily due to the climactic conditions prevailing like humidity, temperature fluctuations etc. which have a significant effect on the the reinforced concrete and steel, the building blocks of an apartment building. 

Take the case of Japan. Building regulations and new techniques, ensures that life of apartments there could run over a 100 years and stand the rigors of earthquakes, floods and other natural calamities. Today with green buildings and modern construction techniques coming into the fray, we can expect future apartments to last over 70 to 80 years, which would be the ideal scenario in India.

When it comes to apartments, most builders advertise their properties as luxury apartments.To demystify, what luxury could really mean , we try and segregate options that builders provide in apartments into 3 different categories. If you are a traveller, you might have heard of 3-star, 5-star, 7-star etc for hotels. However in the case of luxury properties, no real segregation is in place today.

We hope this categorization of Super Luxury, Essential Luxury and Basic Luxury, will help you understand what your luxury apartment should ideally be like:

Super Luxury

1. Design inspired by Worldwide designers e.g. Hiranandani Horizon, Bangalore
2. Prime Location overlooking a prime road or a business center e.g. MG Road
3. Premium concierge services like Quintessentially for apartments e.g. Lodha Bellissimo, Mumbai
4. Full Home automation

Essential Luxury

1. Internal and External Bar
2. BBQ Area
3. Golf Course
4. Lake or Sea Facing
5. Private Theatre
6. Yoga or Aerobic Studio


Basic Luxury
1. Gymnasium
2. Games Room
3. Swimming Pool
4. Squash and Tennis courts
5. Children's Play area
6. Landscaped Garden

So why would you invest in a super luxury apartment? While some of these super luxury apartments in Bangalore for example run into 3 or 5 crore rupees on launch, there have been examples where within a few years the square feet rate has run into 33,000 sq.ft after construction of the property is complete. This means a 3000 sq.ft. 4 bedroom flat runs into approximately 10 crore rupees. In Trivandrum or Kerala for that matter, apartments of the kind Super Luxury really do not exist at the moment. A vast majority would fall into the Basic Luxury or a handful in the Essential Luxury category.

When you choose a Luxury apartment where you aspire to live, do look for the credibility of the architects, designers and the builder and their track record of luxury apartments. After all you want the promises to be delivered as well.