Is sky the limit?

A recent newspaper report in Mumbai spoke about the sale of a duplex flat in the city for a staggering `70 crore. Details were sketchy, but the figure by itself was so breathtaking that anything else really was redundant. In real estate circles, off-the-record of course, they will tell you a bit more. First is that this is by no means the exact price — it could be less but it could be more too. Next — this is by no means the only transaction at that reported price. The building has eight more such duplexes so this could be just the beginning.
The most amazing factor of this putative sale is that the building is not yet ready. Indeed, it exists only on paper as a plan. The builders ha­ve announced they plan to const­ruct the world’s highest residential tower, right in the heart of Mu­mbai but we do not know yet if all the permissions have been giv­en, the structural plans approved and when if at all construction will begin.
Still, just the thought of a flat, in our own Mumbai, for about $17 million — which can buy one some pretty decent living quarters in Manhattan, Tokyo, London and Hong Kong — is enough to make one wonder where real estate is heading. Not that there haven’t been expensive deals in India in the past — a bungalow in Lutyens’ Delhi is said to have sold for much more a few years ago. But that is a bungalow for one thing and it comes with a lot of land around it and some very fancy neighbours. An apartment, even with all the trimmings like a swimming pool (and a rumoured helicopter pad, though that is highly questionable) is still an apartment, the view of the Arabian Sea notwithstanding.
Just about five kilometres from where this building is supposed to come up one can see the new Am­b­ani (Mukesh) skyscraper home co­ming up. This Xanadu, said to cost upwards of one billion dollars — all this gleaned from newspapers but not confirmed officially — will reportedly have a petting zoo, a the­atre, a disco, a beauty parlour, a conference room, living quarters for several round the clock staff, pa­rking space for scores of cars and much more. Photographs of the interiors have been doing the rou­n­ds on the Internet but are almost certainly faked, since no one is lik­ely to give them out. But passers by can glimpse the structure taking sp­ace and it is clear that it is very big. With a family of five living there, the rest of the space is bound to be used for something.
Mumbai is in the grip of an edifice complex, with builders announcing grand plans for very tall structures. Each of the bigger companies has at least one 60-plus storey building in the pipeline and a few of the luxury projects, with 30-odd storeys (and seven to 10 floors of stilt parking) which were started four or five years ago, are already looking tired and jaded. Swimming pool in your terrace — that is so yesterday. Multi-level car parking — ho hum. Butler service — don’t even bother selling. The luxury buyer’s needs are being upgraded every minute and the builders are out to satisfy him.
But alas, this is Mumbai, which takes you to great heights but also has a habit of bringing you down to earth. Many an expensive building is suffering from a severe water shortage. It is disconcerting to pay `10 crore for a fancy penthouse and then put a plastic bucket in the bathroom to catch every drop of precious water. The municipal autho­rities have said there is no guarantee that buildings under construction will get all the water they need.
The bigger question is that of public infrastructure. Can the roads where the skyscrapers are coming up (and many are in the old mills area in central Mumbai) take the traffic that will inevitably follow? What about parking? There is talk of multi-storeyed car parks, but in the past these ideas have not worked, and besides who wants to waste precious land for parking. The metro and skytrains are touted as solutions, but already reports have emerged that the authorities want to build a shed for trains un­der the racecourse. How soon be­fore they take over the racecourse for another building? There goes the last big green lung in the city.
Knowing Mumbai, it will bumble along. The buildings will be made (somehow permissions always come through), people will buy the super-expensive flats and as for the infrastructure, well, Mumbai will ha­ve to cope as it always has. For the common man the super luxury flats are out of reach and an object of envy, but perhaps he has some co­nsolation in knowing that those who live there are stuck in the same traffic jam as his humble public bus.

The writer is a senior journalist and commentator on current affairs based in Mumbai