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Sambhar Mafia - Cooked To Kill!

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Luxury Redefined

Business Line and New Indian Express have some coverage of the ultra-luxury apartments being promoted by Mantri Developers in Bangalore. This should probably go down as one of the most expensive apartment complex atleast in South India.
Mantri Altius is a 17-floor super premium apartment which occupies a built-up area of 85,000 sq ft in a prime locality in the city. The owners include three or four people from garment exports, three to four from the IT industry and two NRIs.

What is unique about this project is that its occupants were personally chosen by Mr Sushil Mantri, Chairman and Managing Director, Mantri Developers, based on factors such as similar interests and non-competing businesses. The 15 families to occupy the flats were picked from a list of 40 prospective buyers.

Each floor accommodates a house over a built-up area of 5,515 sq ft; the Mantris themselves will occupy the flat on the top floor. The building also consists of a clubhouse and a main lobby, replete with a reception area and a bar. The 11,300 sq ft clubhouse across two levels has facilities such as a gym, squash court, TT table, billiards and a carom room. There is also a party hall, a library and a bar lounge.

The Rs 40-crore project took two years to be completed. While the first flat was sold for Rs 3 crore, the last apartment went for Rs 9 crore.

The owners are bound by the condition that while selling his or her apartment, 67 per cent of the other residents must approve the sale. This has been done to ensure a similar profile of residents, said Mr Mantri.

Why would somebody fork out Rs. 9 crores for an apartment when he/she can probably(?) get an independent house meeting similar specs?

7 Comments:

  • OMG! Last I had was an Apartment (~3000 sq. ft)in a prime location of Mumbai being sold in for ~ 17 Crore

    By Blogger Kasi Alagappan, at 6:57 PM  

  • These type of flats are common within business families where the property is given only on a lease deed for 199 or 299 years. Not on sale deed. When they want to move out, they can transfer the lease hold rights only within the family (that too only with male lineage) with the approval of the family patriach.

    This is India and only we can think of such things. Blood is thicker than water. Sentiment is a Sentiment.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:50 PM  

  • Hey thats a thoughtful question indeed - why should i invest so much money when i can get a good independent house! Nice post!

    By Blogger Prasanna Parameswaran, at 8:12 PM  

  • Kaps:
    You got to see one of these gated communities/luxury flats to believe it. They are a world of their own and that's what these NRI folks want. Be the local white folks, I guess. I am not grudging them that.

    One of my friends who made a killing during the first dot-com boom is building one near the Intel office on outer ring road - 2 crores+. The builder is Adarsh - blr has a whole bunch of high quality builderslike Mantri, Adarsh etc. he took me to another one of these gated communities near Marathalli - for a moment I thought I was in the US, till this guy said, it is better than the US.

    I don't want these stinkin apartments ... and the real reason is I don't have/will never have that much dough :-)

    BNB

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:47 AM  

  • I feel the main reason for many people are going for apartments instead of independent houses is the sense of security (both social and cultural). Flat association will take care of everything (of course for a price). Kids will have good companion for playing and in general it will be a good community to be with. Most of these apartments bring together people of same income group (same status group) which another advantage. Your kid will fall in love with people of your status only.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:54 PM  

  • Few days back, we were talking about this (myself & Ar)... this seems to be high, and I believe that's where Bglr is going.

    Today morning, I read in one newspaper which had a report on Bangalore's top rating as "the place to live" in India.

    By Blogger Ram C, at 9:01 PM  

  • We had a Dot Com Bubble in 1999-2000... everyone knows that and what happened.

    Likewise, we are having a worldwide Real Estate Bubble in 2006-2007. It will surely end one day. Be prepared.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:22 PM  

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