Rajshri Mehta

Mumbai: When spiralling property prices have shrunk flat sizes, a Gujarati businessman has redefined luxury by building the biggest plush apartment in the city for himself.

Having a carpet area of 16,000 square feet, the sky villa located at Yari Road is valued at around Rs16 crore — the current market rate in the area is Rs8,000 per sq ft (super built-up).

Sky villa is the new marketing concept doled out by developers to describe an apartment which is designed like a villa and has a carpet area of more than 3,000 sq ft.

The Yari Road flat is on the top five floors (15th to the 19th floor) of the yet-tobe-named 19-storey building located close to the residences of actors Priyanka Chopra and Celina Jaitley.

The Rajkot-based owner is also the developer of the building, which —including its 28 flats — will be ready for occupation in the next 15 days.

The apartment faces the Arabian Sea, providing an un-interrupted panoramic view from Nariman Point to Malad. The 10-bedroom flat also has a gymnasium and two study rooms, all linked by an intertwining staircase.

“The reason why the flat is so large is because we have also utilised the corridor and lift space,” said Aakif Habib, the building design architect.

It also has a 12x20 feet swimming pool on the top floor, which is not common in “luxurious buildings”, said Habib, who has used the latest and expensive material like Travetine for the walls, onyx stone in the bathrooms and roman tiles for the roofing.

The closest competition that the flat faces is from the Imperial, India’s first twin 60-storey residential skyscraper being constructed by Shapoorji Pallonji at Tardeo.

As per information, the Imperial has four 10,000 sq ft apartments with in-built swimming pools. Each flat is expected to cost more than Rs50 crore at the prevailing rate of Rs 50,000 per sq ft.

Other big apartments in the city are Oberoi Skyz, the twin 65-storey building constructed by Oberoi Constructions at Powai — each flat of roughly 8,000 sq ft will have a lap pool. Lake Homes developed by Ekta Group has 4,000 sq ft flats but with a common swimming pool.

Source : DNA