Tahiliani Homes – a part of the House of Tarun Tahiliani Designs – has come up with ultra-luxury villas in Goa. In the words of Jahan Tahiliani, who’s the CEO and promoter of the company, these properties are developed built-to-suit the needs and tastes of his clients. Soon, Tahiliani will also start doing management and upkeep of villas so that he can give a good value to the owners by maintaining and renting out the properties
Karan Sehgal
Everyone wants to buy a dream home in Goa, but very few people know how to get a clear-title land and how to build so that their dream turns
into reality.
They may still get land, but who will hand-hold them when they have to get the best architects, interior designers and all the other service providers?
This is where Jahan Tahiliani, the CEO and promoter of Tahiliani Homes, saw a huge opportunity when he started building premium villas for his clients in Goa. Jahan is an economics scholar from George Washington University and also the younger son of one of India’s leading designers,
Tarun Tahiliani.
Jahan said, “There are two main challenges when it comes to building a home in Goa. First – It’s tough to find clean title land with all the permissions. We want to take away that headache from our customers. I’d rather pay 5% extra for land, provided it has all
the permissions.”
“The second challenge is to build a home from a remote location. Imagine having to engage with several consultants: interior designer, project manager, acoustic consultant, lighting consultant etc. It’s very tough to do this when you are not based out of the location,”
he added.
In short, Tahiliani Homes finds the right plot for its clients and then builds according to their tastes and preferences. The company is based out of Delhi; however, they have a team in Goa as well, which takes care of all aspects of the business.
At the moment, the company is trying to find clients for its four properties – three villas in Salvador do Mundo and one villa in Nachinola.
Jahan continued, “For our villa in Nachinola, we won an award from ‘Architectural Digest’. It’s a glass villa, which was built in conjunction with another firm, which has an architectural glass division. There are eight internal courtyards in this villa, which all have glass.”
Another distinctive feature of the Nachinola villa is the use of Accoya wood, which is imported from Australia/New Zealand. Known to be the best for tropical climate, Accoya wood is a variety of softwood, which is treated to make it hardwood. It’s anti-termite and long-lasting. In fact, it comes with a 50-year warranty.
Jahan informed that they have priced Nachinola villa at Rs 17.5 crore, while the three villas at Salvador do Mundo carry a price-tag of Rs 8-10 crore each. Clearly, these are super luxury villas, which are aimed at a niche clientele.
However, Goa’s real-estate is going through a slowdown for a long time, which never recovered from the shocks of demonetisation and crippling economic condition.
Within the sector, luxury real estate is the most affected because it is expensive and also the demand for second homes has declined. So, how is Tahiliani Homes going to deal with it?
Jahan replied, “We are a self-financed company and we don’t have to repay a debt of anyone. We operate in a niche segment of super-luxury villas. We’re very bullish that in a few weeks, we’ll be able to clear our inventory.”
Jahan is optimistic that he will be able to find the right clients for his villas because Tahiliani Homes has a legacy in Goa, having already built and sold projects in Moira and Nerul. Interestingly, the company is also starting a hospitality division very soon.
“It’s the need for home-owners in Goa. They have an opportunity to transform their house into an asset. We’re taking villas under our management and we are starting this division very soon, in January itself,” Jahan added.
For the Hospitality division, Tahiliani Homes is focusing only on the villas they have built. Actually, the owners asked them if they could find someone, who would like to rent their villa out. Given that most owners don’t stay in Goa themselves, they find it tough to rent out their properties. Then, there was a question of who will manage them.
Jahan said, “We did not want to outsource the responsibility of renting and managing the villas because they were built with a lot of efforts and hard-earned money of our customers. That’s when we thought of starting a hospitality division.”
“We have a team head with impeccable credentials for this division. Our website is soon going to have a rental part as well, wherein people will be able to rent out the villas by just going to the website”, he added.
Essentially, Tahiliani Homes is going to do three things for those who are willing to invest in a property in Goa: find a plot with clean-title, build on it and then manage & rent it. The fact that they are focusing only on a few villas will allow them to concentrate their efforts and give good value to
their clients.
