A high-rise push is helping Mumbai squeeze in pools, gyms and greenery
Apartment sizes are shrinking as more space is allotted to communal amenities
MUMBAI residences are getting smaller as growing wealth in India’s financial capital increases demand for luxury amenities.
In the space-crunched city, apartment developers are building projects that dedicate less space to individual units while offering more communal amenities such as pools, lawns and gyms. That is because buyers and renters are willing to pay more for such comforts in a city plagued by noise and air pollution, traffic congestion and crowded streets while remaining close to family or employers.
Compared with those in other Indian cities, high-rises in Mumbai have the highest square footage allocated to common areas, known in the Indian real estate industry as the “loading factor.” In Mumbai, the average loading factor for residential buildings built in 2025 is 43 per cent, meaning that for a unit advertised as 1,000 square feet (sq ft), 430 sq ft is devoted to shared amenities, while the rest is private to the occupant.
“Today, higher amenity loading has become the norm across most projects, partly because homebuyers are no longer satisfied with basic lifestyle amenities,” says Prashant Thakur, regional director and head of research and advisory at Anarock, a Mumbai real estate consulting firm. “They expect fitness centres, clubhouses, parklike gardens and grand lobbies.”
India, the world’s fastest-growing major economy, is in the midst of a wealth boom thanks in part to a surge in stock listings and equity markets in recent years. The number of Indians with more than US$30 million of wealth is expected to grow to 19,908 by 2028, from 12,495 in 2022, according to Knight Frank, a property consultant.
At the epicentre of the boom is Mumbai, where the average rate per sq ft for residential properties was 16,900 rupees (S$247) in the first quarter of 2025, up from 14,600 rupees in the same period the previous year, according to Anarock data. In the upscale Worli district, the rate reached as high as 75,300 rupees for residential properties in the first three months of 2025.
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Mass construction is underway across the city as Mumbai expands metro lines, builds a new airport and upgrades roads. The infrastructure build-out is intended to ease congestion, but it also leaves less space for walkable streets and open spaces, which the city was already sorely lacking. That means residents are increasingly willing to fork out for recreational and social facilities in their homes.
Developers across Mumbai are trying to outdo one another with such offerings. The Riviere, a residential development in northern Mumbai by developer Raheja Universal that opened in 2023, claims to offer the world’s highest residential sky gym, built 205 metres above ground, as well as the highest infinity pool and highest residential lounge, all in one property.
Some developments in the city also offer facilities such as hydro gyms, which are workout spaces with specialised equipment, such as exercise bikes, placed in a pool.
“I love walking outdoors, [but] you don’t get that in Mumbai,” says Sayem Vir Raina, who moved into a high-end housing complex called Lodha Park in the Lower Parel district after relocating from the US a-year-and-a-half ago. He and his roommate pay 150,000 rupees per month for a 920-sq-ft apartment – the area includes the loading factor – that offers access to gourmet restaurants, a skate park, an outdoor cinema, picnic spots and reading areas, all on the property.
The neighbourhood, in the south of Mumbai, was once a centre for the textile industry, but high-rises and gated communities have since replaced mills and housing for workers. Lower Parel is congested and noisy but remains popular because of its proximity to workplaces.
The rising price of real estate paired with the demand for premium amenities is pushing Indian developers to focus almost solely on building luxury properties.
Nearly half of total housing sales in the country in 2025 were in the premium and luxury segment, or homes that cost at least 10 million rupees, according to a June report by Knight Frank. Meanwhile, the share of homes that cost less than five million rupees dropped to 22 per cent in the first six months of 2025, from 54 per cent in 2018.
That’s squeezing out even the middle class in Mumbai, who will “have to live far from their workplace”, says Sahil Gandhi, an associate professor of real estate and urban economics who studies the Indian housing market at the University of Manchester.
As demand for luxury amenities expands, the rising cost of housing will increase the time lower- and middle-income workers spend commuting, he says, “making their living standards poor”.
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