Luxe homes maintenance rivals flat prices

Ahmedabad: If you believe that the price tag on an ultra-luxury apartment covers it all, you're in for a surprise. At the city's top-end addresses, buyers are handing over an additional Rs 40 lakh to Rs 2 crore — the cost of another upscale home —as one-time maintenance deposit, that too upfront, reports Parag Dave. Developers say it's the price of uninterrupted luxury living. For buyers, this is the new normal of hassle-free luxury living. Along the Iskcon-Ambli stretch, where duplex penthouses sprawl over a palatial 20,000 square feet, builders have pegged maintenance deposits at Rs 1,000 per square foot. That's Rs 2 crore upfront — locked in to create a Rs 60-crore corpus to maintain the glitzy premises that promises a luxury lifestyle with amenities, without flat owners having to shell out monthly maintenance fees for decades. "This is a 62-unit scheme in a 38-storey tower, standing 156m tall, one of the city's tallest residential buildings. We have added every luxury: a private theatre, grand banquet halls, gyms, pools, wellness centres and more. With Rs 5 per square foot monthly upkeep, cost to maintain the 6 lakh square feet space comes to Rs 30 lakh a month. Other apartments in the complex sprawl across 7,500-9,000 square feet, with maintenance costs coming to Rs 75-90 lakh. The corpus ensures smooth operations without residents having to argue about expenses later," said Rajan Shah, director of a leading realty group developing the project.These mega-projects offer not just homes, but five-star lifestyles. Some luxury apartments include two kitchens, multiple family rooms, sprawling balconies, and separate spaces for formal and informal living. "One of our uber-luxurious residential projects has three swimming pools, a theatre for first-day releases with Dolby surround, banquet halls with attached kitchens, a fully air-conditioned building, residential guest suites, and even full-body massage rooms. Members pay Rs 700 per square foot as maintenance deposit — about Rs 75 lakh for a 10,700-square-foot home — because it guarantees a certain lifestyle without worrying about monthly upkeep," said Sunit Choksi, director of a real estate firm."And here's the clincher — when owners sell these apartments, the maintenance deposit is refundable, making luxury accessible at zero monthly costs," he adds.The bar is set just as high elsewhere on Iskcon-Ambli Road. N K Patel, director of another real estate firm, said, "Our upcoming 8,000-square-foot apartments will require buyers to pay Rs 600 per square foot — around Rs 48 lakh per apartment — as maintenance deposit. With this corpus, the residents' welfare association will find managing the scale of amenities we are offering a breeze for years to come."Post-Covid, the appetite for such luxurious living has only grown. "Today's buyers want the club experience at home — minus the traffic jams. A well-maintained project doesn't just offer comfort; it also fetches a fat premium when owners eventually sell," said Dipak Patel, president of Credai Gujarat.