Where Money Resides

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[<p>Ever since Mukesh and Nita Ambani built themselves a new home — Antilia, on Mumbai's posh Altamount Road — the discussion on how India's rich and powerful live has never been the same again. Antilia has wowed those who aspire for the good things in life. For those who analyse poverty and its causes, such as writer Arundhati Roy, for whom Antilia is a symbol of opulence, mocking at the 800 million poor of India. But both protagonists and antagonists will agree that Antilia has redefined the meaning of a super-rich home. With its 27 floors, nine lifts, gymnasiums, six floors of parking and a staff of 600 running the show, the $1.7 billion home has set a new international record for the most expensive personal address.<br><br>Has this set off a new scramble among the&nbsp;super rich? Perhaps. According to Anuj Puri, property broking firm Jones Lang Lasalle's country head, Kingfisher brand promoter Vijay Mallya has levelled his 4.5 acre ancestral home on Vittal Mallya Road in Bangalore to make way for his 82-apartment ‘White House'. Mallya himself will occupy an acre-size penthouse on the 33rd and 34th floors. Another broker who helped Mallya ink a number of foreign deals said the tycoon-in-trouble has negotiated deals for 25 or so top-line luxury chalets in resort destinations as far flung as Goa, south of France and Barcelona. These are kept in perfect readiness for guests, though Mallya himself may come on a visit maybe just once a year.<br><br>Why do the rich and powerful build homes and offices that are much larger than what they will ever use? Homes and offices are not just functional hubs but also symbols of their owners' station in life. For many, it is to tell the world they have arrived. For others, it is an indication of the power and strength they wield in the corporate world.<br><br>Subrata Roy Sahara, chairman of the Lucknow-headquartered Sahara Group, owns a white marble palace in a 375-acre estate that has a 2 sq. km. artificial lake and a 5,000-seater auditorium. He probably also holds the record for the largest corporate office in the world. An actor who visited him in Lucknow said it was "the size of a football field", designed to tire you out before you got to his table. The head of a television channel, who was made to wait in an&nbsp;anteroom, described the décor as the most opulent he had even seen, with mannequins of damsels serving as coat hangers. That was precisely the purpose: to overawe the visitor before he meets the ‘Saharashri'.<br><br>This penchant among the super rich for displaying their wealth through opulent homes and offices serves more than one more purpose. It has created a micro-market of super luxury homes in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore for which the aspiring rich make a beeline. Even as brokers and media writers predict the downfall of the luxury property market because of super-inflated prices, the super-luxury segment remains unshaken, what with a trickle for supply and a large queue waiting to get in.<br><br>How else does one explain the steady rise in prices in this niche segment? Sample this: The Indiabulls project at Worli called ‘Blu' — what used to be Bharat Mills — has recently opened bookings at a rack rate of Rs 45,000 a sq.ft; translated, this means a four-bedroom flat in the two-tower complex will cost Rs 24 crore. For celebrity value, the occupants of the 10-acre complex will rub shoulders with Sameer Gehlaut, the young chairman of the Indiabulls Group, who is building a tower in the complex as his residence.<br><br>It is the principle laid down in Lutyens' Delhi for years now. In an area of around 2,800 hectares — about 2 per cent of Delhi — are some of the most lavish 1,000 or so bungalows of the country. Most of them are government-owned and occupied by ministers and parliamentarians. About 65 are privately owned, spread over Prithviraj Road, Amrita Shergill Marg and Aurangzeb Road, by the who's who of industry, from Sunil Mittal and L.N. Mittal to the Jindal brothers. Declared a heritage zone, the supply is limited. If a home changes hands, it will be upwards of Rs 400 crore.<br><br>gurbir(dot)singh(at)abp(dot)in<br><br><span>(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 30-07-2012)</span></p>