Palatial Splendour

Buoyed by renewed demand, sales of the glitzy mansions of the ultra-rich are surging like never before. Real estate majors are looking to capitalise on this by launching luxury offerings in record numbers

- ARNAB DUTTA

In the months leading up to the festive season last year, the real estate market in the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi lit up unexpectedly, emerging from a prolonged period of dour sentiments. With an eye-popping deal setting a benchmark in the region, the market, despite its history of fraudulent realtors deceiving homebuyers for nearly a decade, captured the attention of industry stakeholders and homebuyers alike. The Camellias, an opulent ultra-luxury apartment complex on Gurugram’s Golf Course Road, witnessed the sale of an 11,000-sq.-ft fourBHK apartment for ₹114 crore in October 2023, marking a significant milestone.

That was the first such deal to surpass the ₹100-crore threshold typically associated with Lutyens Delhi bungalows. A few months later, in February 2024, another swanky apartment was acquired for over ₹100 crore by Smiti Agarwal, the spouse of Hemant Agarwal, Chairman and MD of mass market retail major V-Bazaar, in the same complex of DLF’s upscale township—DLF Golf Links. The apartment, which spreads over 10,800 sq. ft, and comes with parking for five cars, was valued at ₹95 crore, with Agarwal paying a few more crores as stamp duty and related charges. The dream run of ultra-luxury homes continues. In March, Vasudha Rohatgi, the wife of former Attorney General of India and renowned senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, purchased a 2,100-sq.-yard (approximately 19,000 sq. ft) bungalow for ₹160 crore in Delhi’s Golf Links.