Sameera adds dash of luxury to well-heeled

Forget the duplex flats and speeding mercs to show off your wealth if you are included in the recent billionaires' list. Instead, cruise on your speedboat on the Arabian Sea, park it in a marina and dwell comfortably in your super-luxury villa in Alibaug, a la Dubai style.

Banking on the burgeoning number of super rich in the country, Samira Habitats, a Mumbai-based realty firm, is building 5-bedroom lifestyle villas, each equipped with party hall, gymnasium, jacuzzi, imported furniture, health club, a small golf course, swimming-pool and international landscaping. Each of these villas comes at a price of Rs 3.5 crore.

To start with, there will be theme villas, including Mediterranean, Spanish and Balinese themes. The 4,000 sq ft villas will be fully automated with cameras attached to mobile phones of owners through GPRS technology so that the owners can constantly monitor the goings-on at their luxury dwellings.

The whole idea was inspired by Dubai's favourite tourist destinations such as Jumeirah Islands, Dubai Marina, Springs, Meadows, Arabian Ranches, where the rich and the famous from across the world spend their holidays.

"We are creating infrastructure for the super rich to show off their wealth, which they do not find in crowded cities such as Mumbai. We offer a complete lifestyle deal once the villa owners leave the starting point in their boat and reach the villa. We will take care of the villas in their absence," says Sameer A Nerurkar, managing director of Samira Habitats. Samira plans to sell the luxurious habitats in the coming months, as it wants to capitalise on the market prices in the near future. It has also roped in British citizen Allan Sippy to head the lifestyle villa business. To complement the luxury villa concept, Sameera is also planning to build a marina, a bay to park boats, with an investment of Rs 10 crore. It is in talks with a European company, which specialises in building marinas. It is finalising the land for the project.

Though the concept of luxury villas and marina always existed in places such as Goa, it is being tried out for the first time in Mumbai, claims Sameer. In the first face, the company wants to build 50 such villas, adding another 100 in the second phase with a total investment of Rs 300 crore.

In Europe, most of the countries such as Spain, Portugal, Norway, the UK and the Netherlands have the concept of luxury villas on the beaches, with many realty companies engaged in renting them out. "Very few villas exist in Mumbai. Even the super rich cannot afford a villa in Mumbai, where the property prices have hit the roof. In that sense, our prices are very reasonable" he claims.

Way back in 2001-02, another real estate company K Raheja Universal had sold 28 such villas ranging from 3,000 to 6,000 sq ft in Madh Island, another getaway destination.

"Now people need such getaway places, which are closer to the city, which they can commute to and from easily. The getaway concept always existed, but it is now picking up," says Sudhir Thakker, general manager of K Raheja Universal. "In the next four to five years, Alibag will not remain as a getaway destination, but will become a suburb to the SEZs. With world-class infrastructure, well-paying jobs and high lifestyles, the surrounding areas will get greater demand. With the upcoming SEZs, the rich and the famous in large numbers are buying land in the areas surrounding the SEZs," says Nerurkar. Apart from catering to the super rich, Sameera is also planning to rake in foreign exchange by foraying into medical tourism with a US-based company to set up a joint venture.

Nerurkar says his firm is aiming to tap a chunk of European and US tourists availing of medical services in the south-east Asian countries and to build upon the Union government's target of achieving a business of $1 billion by 2010 through medical tourism.

It is also planning to set up health farms, where people can rejuvenate and de-stress themselves. It is exploring private equity options to fund the venture.