THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024
VIKANT SAHAY
You name it, and Goa has it. Internationally acclaimed real estate companies are operating in the State with their India head office either in Mumbai or Delhi and are busy brokering high-valued properties which are up for sale. Be it world renowned action company which is also into real estate Sotheby’s along with JLL, Savills, eXp international real estate players and several other International Property Consultancies (IPCs) have presence in the State and they are busy luring celebrities and high-end customers who are inclined to buy a property in Goa.
In the recent times, Goa has witnessed high ticket value properties being sold like the Kingfisher Villa in 2017 or Jimmy Gazdar’s iconic villa this year. Internationally acclaimed architect Gerard da Cunha who has recently been assigned to design the newly bought Jimmy Gazdar bungalow by GVK, told Herald, “I have been approached and asked to make a new vision of this iconic villa and a requirement for some kind of a wellness resort but at the same time not to lose the flavour of the original bungalow.” This villa had been built nearly 30 years ago that is before the CRZ regulations were imposed and it was made of natural forms and very little concrete.
Suraj Morajkar, Managing Director of Sun Estates Developers and Hilton Goa who deals with high end clients as a routine, defines “high end” as anything that has got a beach view, beach touch, river touch, river view and there is substantial amount of land in the property where the FAR is only used by 10-15 per cent can be classified as “high-end”.
The demand for these high-end properties which has lately risen in Goa has left the developers with very less inventory. “Currently there is not much inventory left in the market but people who drawn to Goa, are coming for building a holiday home as there is a very less percentage of under construction properties,” said Suraj Morajkar.
He further added that, “Yes celebrities are coming but there are many famous industrialists, educationists etc are coming too. They have their specification which primarily is a want of large piece of land with scenic view. There is a constant demand for such homes and properties but there is less inventories in the market. I would say there is no inventory left in the market. During the pandemic the customers have realised the importance of work from home and hence they are looking for properties in Goa.”
Amit Chopra, President of the Goa Association of Realtors, believes firmly that sale of properties have a rippling effect and one sale leads to other because the news spreads all around. “We recently saw a couple of very large transactions happening in recent times post pandemic. Jimmy Gazdar’s bungalow was one of the main ones and is rumoured to be sold around Rs 91 crore. Earlier it was the Kingfisher Villa. You name it and they are here. Celebrities like Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan, cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar in South Goa, Ajay Jadeja, Yuvraj Singh, etc, they all have their farmhouse and bungalows spread across Goa as it provides them space and privacy,” said Amit Chopra.
He went on to add that when people start living here, obviously the State is going to benefit. “My take on it will be simple such deals are going to keep on happening. When one such deal happens it attracts another. More such deals will be happening definitely in Goa and in the surroundings. Large projects are going to come, Mopa airport coming and in the field of infrastructure many developments are taking place like the expansion of national highways etc will draw more buyers to Goa. Large deals of lands have also happened in recent times. People now are interested to build their own houses so 4000-6000 square metres plots have been bought. They all are coming out of the ‘ghettos’ to have a much better living space. These people also provide for employment for locals,” added Amit Chopra.
Architect Manguesh R Prabhugaonker who is a national council member of the Indian Institute of Architects believes that since pre and post liberation times, we have been gifted with rich architectural heritage that provides huge potential for Goa’s tourism model with direct impacts on Goa’s housing and real estate industry. To focus primarily on the modern architectural heritage in India, which does need listing and a survey of its potential, one would realise that these structures within such huge small and big properties in some of the most exclusive locations within natural landscapes of Goa, have been offering tremendous potential.
“Such modern heritage properties do need attention in terms of its maintenance and operations and also require planning strategies that could be exploited for its re-adaptive usages especially built and natural heritage for the commercially revenue driven industry in Goa . This needs big investments, which somehow becomes financially bit difficult to either sustain with current financial resources and renovate or restore or re-adapt to the futuristic technology app based infrastructure as per global trends. Concepts of nature of entertainment, holidays and way of living has been changing globally which is reflected in the incoming investments in Goa that is bound to influence the nature of futuristic technology based infrastructure that needs to be created. Change is seen in traditional model of Goa which is beyond just sea, sand and sun,” said Manguesh R. Prabhugaonker.
By analysing Goa’s globally established brand and its potential to attract, Manguesh Prabhugaonker believes that it does gets attention of several stakeholders in and around the world to explore all such properties to intervene and either buy or adapt on a long lease. “Due to such demands one can see that most of the modern heritage structure built post liberation are undergoing transformation, in terms of both architectural concept based designs and also infrastructure based towards digital global trends. Work from Home or from your private space with challenges of the digital world seems to be also an additional factor that creates a demand for new trends of Goa’s Housing Policy in Goa which certainly opens up new avenues for employment opportunities and investments in the long run in various aspects of service industry,” said the architect.
Manguesh Prabhugaonker also mentioned that, “Such transformations do come along with cascade effect on real estate and housing industry, which too generates a need for a demand for a high-end properties going for high stakes in Goa, which needs a planning mechanism of close monitoring and review in terms of a direction that Goa is leading at. Guess it is a beginning of new emerging Goa.”
eXp Realty is one of the world’s fastest-growing real estate brokerages. Founded in 2009 it is spread in 14 countries around the world with a community of over 50,000 real estate professionals, all connected through or unique cloud-based platform, eXp World. Goa too is in their priority list.
Sachin Taneja who used work for Sotheby’s about year and a half ago, now works for eXp Global Realty which is a American-based company in India, is active in Goa. He told Herald that, “In the post pandemic times the demand in Goa has gone up. People are bee-lining for Goa as a second holiday home needed for them as a getaway and also people want to spend money and enjoy. During the pandemic they have realised that if they have the money why not spend it and enjoy the life. Yes the demand increased soon after the first wave but now after the second wave of pandemic the business is virtually dead.”
