Lodha reopens bookings for world’s tallest residential tower In Mumbai

After a gap of three years, Mumbai-based Lodha Group has reopened bookings in its luxury residential project World One — the tower holding the benchmark of being the world’s tallest residential building under construction.

The apartments are being priced at Rs 70,000 per sq ft on carpet area for apartments sized 2,500-3,500 sq ft. This takes the ticket size of the apartments to a whopping Rs18 crore - Rs25 crore.

The project located in central Mumbai, close to the upmarket Worli, was initially launched in late 2010, however, after almost a year of sales, the bookings were stopped in end 2011.

Abhishek Lodha, managing director, Lodha Group, told FE that the company had sold 50% of the project in the first 12 months of the launch and decided to take a break on bookings as it wanted to reach a certain threshold of construction before starting bookings again. The project will be 423 metres, or 1,400 ft, in height — almost 4.5 times the height of the Statue of Liberty in the US.

“The apetite for luxury developments is quite high and we felt this is a good time to re-open bookings on the project,” Lodha said.

The company has seen a total of Rs2,000 crore of sales in World One till date, Lodha said. In the last two weeks, the company has seen Rs500 crore in sales and has sold 30 units. The current round of bookings is for 3- and 4-bedroom apartments and will go on till December 14, 2014.

The project, though back again after a gap, had faced its set of challenges. The height of the project had raised concerns that the tower may hinder the aircraft movement from the Mumbai International Airport as the project is in the centre of the city. In 2011, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) had also conducted a study to understand if there were any risks to the movement of flights in and out of Mumbai.

Lodha on Tuesday said, “All the necessary clearances, including civil aviation permissions, are in place for the entire project. It will be a 117 storeyed project as envisaged.” He added that 74 floors in the project are completed and the construction is currently on for the 75th floor.

Some of the other features of the World One include having India’s fastest elevators travelling at 8 metres per second, first project in South Asia to have Armani/Casa design its interiors and first project in India to be constructed with latest construction technology called Jump form shuttering system.

The entire project called World Towers will have three towers — World One, World Crest and World View.

According to real estate experts, the demand for luxury residences continues in India. Om Ahuja, CEO (residential services), JLL India, “Demand continues to be robust for options in bonafide premium locations of the key Indian cities, but newly tailored luxury addresses are also seeing their share of action as long as the projects on offer meet certain parameters”.

Ref - http://www.financialexpress.com/article/industry/companies/lodha-reopens-bookings-for-worlds-tallest-residential-tower/17461/