A Founder’s Note

In Ahmedabad’s real estate market, “luxury” has become a branding exercise. Import some Italian marble, install a European kitchen, add a clubhouse with a gym, and call it premium. But visit these projects a few years after handover and the complaints are remarkably consistent: the marble has stained, the kitchen layout does not work, the clubhouse is empty, and the apartment is either too hot or too dark. Luxury, it turns out, is not about finishes. It is about decisions.

Over the past two decades, I have worked on residential projects across the spectrum—from affordable housing to premium bungalows. The patterns are clear. What makes a home feel luxurious has almost nothing to do with the price of the materials and almost everything to do with how the space is designed, detailed, and executed.

Yet most luxury developments in Ahmedabad continue to compete on the wrong variables: lobby grandeur, fitting brands, amenity lists, and marketing renders. The fundamentals—space planning, daylight, thermal comfort, acoustic privacy, and long-term durability—are treated as secondary.

This is a missed opportunity. And it is why so many “luxury” apartments feel ordinary within a year of possession.

What do luxury homebuyers actually value after living in a home?

Residents who have lived in these homes for a few years tend to describe the same things when asked what they value most:

Acoustic privacy. The ability to have a conversation without neighbours hearing. The absence of lift noise, pump noise, or corridor chatter. This is mentioned more often than any finish or fitting.

Thermal comfort. A bedroom that does not require AC in March. A living room that stays comfortable on a winter evening. Comfort that does not depend on running machines all day.

Usable space. A kitchen that fits how the family actually cooks. A master bedroom where the bed does not block the bathroom door. Wardrobes deep enough to hang a sari without folding.

Natural light. Living rooms that do not need lights at noon. Bathrooms with windows. Balconies that feel like outdoor rooms, not storage areas.

Durability. Fittings that work after five years. Finishes that age gracefully. Hardware that does not need replacement within the first decade.

Notice what is missing from this list: the brand of the kitchen, the country of origin of the marble, the number of amenities in the clubhouse.

What mistakes do luxury developers keep making?

Prioritising visual luxury over functional luxury. A lobby with a chandelier and marble floors photographs well. But if the apartments above have poor acoustic separation, the residents feel cheated. The lobby is visited for thirty seconds a day; the apartment is lived in for hours.

Importing solutions without adapting them. European kitchens are designed for European cooking. A modular kitchen optimised for baking and sautéing does not work for Indian cooking with its larger vessels, higher heat, and oil splatter. Premium fittings that cannot handle Ahmedabad’s water quality fail within years.

Overselling amenities that go unused. Every luxury brochure lists a swimming pool, gym, spa, library, business centre, and party hall. Within a year of occupation, half of these are locked or under-maintained. The maintenance cost remains. The value does not.

Ignoring orientation because the plot is constrained. A luxury apartment with floor-to-ceiling glass facing west is not luxurious in May. It is a greenhouse. No amount of expensive curtains compensates for a fundamental orientation error.

Specifying finishes before resolving details. Expensive stone with poor waterproofing stains. Premium wood in humid bathrooms warps. The cost of the material is wasted if the detail beneath it fails.

What does real luxury look like in an Ahmedabad home?

Real luxury is invisible. It is the absence of problems rather than the presence of expensive things.

It is a bedroom where you cannot hear the neighbours’ television. It is a living room that stays cool in April without running the AC continuously. It is a kitchen where two people can cook together without colliding. It is a bathroom where the drainage works perfectly for twenty years.

It is also the presence of delight: morning light falling exactly where you take your tea, a balcony that catches the evening breeze, a view that remains unobstructed because the massing was planned with setbacks in mind.

This kind of luxury costs no more than the conventional approach. It requires only that the priorities be correct from the first sketch.

What should luxury homebuyers ask before purchasing?

Ask: What is the wall construction between my unit and the neighbour’s? Where is the lift shaft relative to my bedroom? What orientation does my master bedroom face, and how was heat gain addressed?

Ask: Can I see the detailed section drawings, not just the floor plan? Where does the drainage run? How thick is the slab? What is the acoustic rating of the windows?

Ask: What maintenance has been required in similar projects by this developer after five years? What has failed? What has held up?

If the answers are vague or defensive, the luxury may be skin-deep.

What should developers do differently?

Start with the plan, not the finishes. A well-planned apartment with modest finishes feels more luxurious than a poorly planned apartment with expensive ones.

Invest in acoustic separation. It is not glamorous, but it is the single most valued feature after move-in. Double walls, staggered studs, resilient channels, acoustic sealant at every penetration—these details matter.

Design kitchens for Indian cooking. Deeper counters, better ventilation, stone that handles turmeric stains, hardware that tolerates oil and humidity.

Right-size the amenities. A smaller, well-maintained pool is better than a larger one that becomes a liability. An intimate gym that residents actually use is worth more than a cavernous one that sits empty.

Let the architecture speak. True luxury does not need branding on the façade or gold in the lobby. It shows in the proportions, the light, the materials, and the care taken at every junction.

The deeper point: luxury is the absence of compromise

Real luxury housing is not about what you add. It is about what you refuse to sacrifice. It is about not compromising on daylight to gain an extra bedroom. Not compromising on acoustic privacy to reduce wall thickness. Not compromising on thermal comfort to save on envelope cost.

The market in Ahmedabad is beginning to mature. Buyers who have lived in one “luxury” project and been disappointed are now asking harder questions before buying the next. Developers who understand this shift will build projects that command premium prices and retain value. Those who do not will find their inventory sitting unsold while the market moves on.

Luxury is not a price point. It is a design discipline.

— Ar. Brijesh V Patel

Founder & Principal Architect, VastuNirman Architects (VNA)