Over the last decade, lifestyle has evolved as an important and often decisive factor in the Indian real estate industry. With the increasing presence of the IT / ITeS sector in many cities of the country, a large segment of Indian home buyers have entered a higher level of affordability and therefore tastes in homes. This has led to a greater emphasis on larger sizes, evolved ambience and interior décor in the choice of properties. India is now seeing a strong trend in ‘smart’ and ‘green’ homes, which have high levels of lifestyle quotient attached to them.
For an increasing number of Indians, the focus of home buying has now shifted from functionality and inflexible budgets to lifestyle homes. Comfort, convenience and environmental awareness and responsibility play an important part in home buying today. Likewise, privacy and self-sufficiency are also part of the new mantra.
Home buyers in India who have been exposed to residential real estate trends in countries such as the US, UK, Singapore, Australia and Canada now wish to emulate the developed world’s focus on sustainable living. Among other things, this has resulted in an increasing demand for green homes. Many developers now focus on bringing the world’s contemporary residential concepts to India – and projects with green living features are in increasing demand.
Green homes are more than just a prestige tag. Residential projects that have been designed and constructed on such lines ensure the lowest possible environmental impact of the building and its premises during the entire project’s life-cycle. The result is reduced energy consumption, pollution and waste generation.
Interestingly, the fast-emerging concept of green homes is having a visible socio-economic impact on the neighbourhoods which are thus created. Inhabitants of environmentally sustainable residential projects are aware that the onus of maintaining the overall sustainability quotient of the project is not solely on the developers and the infrastructure and facilitation provided. They are aware that true green living requires a new mind-set and a new lifestyle, as well.
The whole concept of green homes is admittedly still in its infancy in India. However, if we take the city of Pune as a case in point, it actually emerges that there is now an annual increase of 10-15% increase in home buyers who will not settle for anything less. These homebuyers are committed to the health of their families, exercising their option of wasting less energy and towards preserving the city’s environment for the future generations.
As a result, more and more green home projects in Pune are now actually populated by inhabitants who passionately believe in and adhere to sustainable living concepts. In a market where many of Pune’s neighbourhoods were previously tailored according to professions, income brackets and social status, today we are talking about an entirely new and highly progressive selection process whwrein entire residential communities take up the cause of environmental sustainability.