Luxury Housing Market in India

India is has one of the fastest growing real-estate markets in the world and luxury
housing is emerging as one of the most vibrant and dynamic segment of Indian
real-estate industry. It is attracting both domestic real-estate developers and also
the foreign investors. This is also partly due to the buzz that is being created in the
International circles due to the political developments taking place in the country.

Increased
Aspirations
Rapidly
Growing HNIs

Changing
lifestyles

Luxury
Housing
Market in
India

Figure : Factors leading to growth in Luxury segment in Real Estate

Rapidly growing High Net-Worth Clients, increased aspirations, and changing
lifestyle are the some of the factors that drive the growth of luxury housing sector
in India. Many companies have come up with luxury residential homes that enjoy all
the luxurious amenities. Luxury Housing market has especially picked up in metros
like Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Pune. There are several
real estate and other companies that have made foray into this particular segment.

Ansal Housing
Unitech
Tata Housing
DLF
EMAAR MGF
Sobha Developers
Omaxe

Figure : Existing Players

In this paper, Our aim is to study the specific niche segment that hasnt yet been
explored in India i.e Artificial Island Real Estate. This has already been done in other
places like Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and Miami (Florida, United States). Hence,
precedents have already been set. We believe in a country like India, especially in
places like Mumbai where land is often recovered to construct new buildings, these
artificial island housing projects could prove very attractive especially in the niche
luxury market area.

Chenn
ai

Mumb
ai

Kochi

Vizag

Figure : Possible locations for Artificial Island Real Estate

Artificial Island Real Estate

The very idea is revolutionary because such housing projects have never been
discussed in India. But we know that latent demand for such projects do exist in the
Indian Market. Going by the number of Indians who have booked plots in the World
island and palm tree islands in Dubai, we know Indian customer is at least open to
researching such buying options in the housing market. Before we go into looking
at the viability of such projects at Indian context. Lets explore how such projects
have been done at a global scale.
We will explore the following projects as a precedent to the artificial island project in
India :

World Islands - Dubai

The World Island project was a new development by Nakheel. It consists of a

collection of 300 private islands in the shape of continents located off the coast of
Dubai. The brand proposition that it offers is one of privacy and exclusivity. It has a
collection of man-made islands shaped into the continents of the world, located off
the coast of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. It will consist of 300 small private
artificial islands divided into four categories - private homes, estate homes, dream
resorts, and community islands. Each island will range from 250,000 to 900,000
square feet (23,226 to 83,613 square metres) in size, with 50 to 100 metres (164 to
328 feet) of water between each island. It covers a total area of 9 kilometres (5.4
miles) in length and 6 kilometres (3.6 miles) in width, surrounded by an oval shaped
breakwater. The only means of transportation between the islands will be by marine
or air transport. The World Islands is located 4 kilometres off the shore of Jumeirah,
close to the Palm Jumeirah, between Burj Al Arab and Port Rashid at approximately
25 degrees 13 North and 55 degrees 10 East. The completed date is 2005. The
World was serviced by four major transportation hubs linked by waterways. Land
parcels are zoned for various uses: estate, mid density, high density, resorts and
commercial.

Estate

Mid
Density

High
Density

Resorts &
Commerci
al

Figure : Zoning

Palm Island Project - Dubai

The Palm Islands are artificial islands constructed from sand dredged from the
bottom of the Persian Gulf by the Belgian company, Jan De Nul and the Dutch
company, Van Oord. The sand is sprayed from dredging ships, guided by a

Global Positioning System , onto the required area. The spraying process is
known as rainbowing because of the rainbow-like arcs produced in the air
when the sand is sprayed. The outer edge of each palm's encircling crescent
is a large rock breakwater. The breakwater of the Palm Jumeirah contains over
seven million tons of rock; a crane placed each rock individually. This was
done for the first time and this is something that can be replicated in
our project in India as well.

The Jan De Nul Group started working on the Palm Jebel Ali in 2001 and had
finished by the end of 2006. The reclamation project for the Palm Jebel Ali
includes the creation of a four-kilometer-long peninsula, protected by a 200meter-wide,

seventeen-kilometer

long

circular

breakwater.

There

are

210,000,000 cubic meters of rock, sand and limestone that were reclaimed
(partly originating from the Jebel Ali entrance channel dredging work). There

are approximately 10,000,000 cubic meters of rocks in the Slope Protection

Works.
Among the three islands there will be over 100 luxury hotels, exclusive
residential beach side villas and apartments, marinas, water theme parks,
restaurants, shopping malls, sports facilities and health spas.

Artificial Island Project at India

Location
Location for such a project would be Mumbai due to the following reasons :

Location of Mumbai on seacoast

Prior dredging of land and recovery of land from sea shows that the

project is physically viable at a city like Mumbai

The need for such a project is truly felt at Mumbai which suffers from

lack of space and congestion

The market of such a project exists in a city like Mumbai which boasts
of Ultra High net worth Clientele.

Now lets explore how we can develop this into a Residential/ Commercial
project. We can develop the project in the following ways

Private Homes

Estate Homes

Dream Resorts

Community
Islands

Private Homes
These homes are designed as family homes for the conventional Indian family with
2 parents and 2-3 children. It would consist of a home in addition to a compound

area. Premium could be in the form of a garden in front of the home. Attention
would be paid to architecture.

Estate Homes
These are for the development of estates which are mostly for weekend getaways.
It could also be used for business guesthouses which is relevant in a city like
Mumbai, the business hub of India.
Community
This is mostly for utility purposes such as restaurants, gyms and pharmacies.
Dream Resorts
Theses could be in the form of resorts which could also present Mumbai as a tourist
destination for the world.

Activities to be done

Market Feasibility Study

Government Approvals

Financing
F
inancing

Layout and Architecture

Outsiede Vendor
Finalizing
F
inalizing

Construction &
Marketing

Final Closinng of Project