MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: If you’ve been wondering that the EMI you are paying for your home loan was massive, think again. These days, residents of some of Mumbai and

premium apartments are paying astronomical amounts just as maintenance fee for the all the facilities that are thrown in with their apartments.

Gurgaon’sMaintenance charges at The Imperial, a residential building at Tardeo in south Mumbai, for instance, is as high as Rs 1.5 lakh a month for a 10,000 sq ft apartment. This isn’t an exception, but more of a norm, given the number of luxury projects that have sprung up in the recent years.Even the smallest 2,550 sq ft configuration flat at The Imperial shells out over Rs 40,000 based on monthly charges of Rs 16 per sq ft, says one of the residents of the building. In Gurgaon, too, some high-end properties charge Rs 7-10 per sq ft and the size of some apartments are between 4,000 and 5,000 sq ft.The high-rises that are under construction or have come up in Mumbai and Gurgaon are setting new benchmarks in luxury. Apart from the usual frills, they sport facilities like concierge service, air conditioned apartments, large private swimming pools and restaurants, and the super-rich are ready to pay top-dollar to buy such a lifestyle. Most of the residents in such buildings are corporate promoters, diamond merchants, investment bankers, and the likes.Typically, the amenities along with its location dictate the property price, and good maintenance enhances the life of the building besides the luxury quotient adding to the resale value. “Property rates in our complex are at least 30% higher than the neighborhood,” said Pradeep Patil, chairman of Oberoi Sky Heights Co-operative Society. He insists that the rate differential is due to “good maintenance, landscaping and services offered here”.Oberoi Sky Heights, a 36-storey building, was constructed by Oberoi Realty and the management of the society was handed over to the managing committee two years ago. The complex, with two wings and 65 apartments, charges Rs 9 per sq ft a month as maintenance charge and has amenities like clubhouse, gym, squash court and a pool. The highest monthly maintenance charge of Rs 1.08 lakh are paid by owners of triplex apartments here spread over 12,000 sq ft that also boast of private swimming pools on terraces.Given the large sizes of these projects and the ultra-luxury amenities, more and more housing societies and developers are now engaging companies specialising in facilities management to take care of maintenance aspect.“Earlier, only commercial complexes used to hire facilities management firms. However, given the number of luxury properties being developed, even housing societies are doing so,” says Vishal Gupta, chief strategy officer at ISS Integrated Facilities Services that looks after estate and facilities management for various societies and developers.

Gupta admits that the trend has had apositive impact on their business as residents, who can afford this kind of maintenance charges, ensure that they are served professionally. “The quality of service and facilities is crucial for someone buying such luxury apartments,” says Gupta.

At Lodha Bellissimo, one of the early ‘by-invitation’ projects in central Mumbai, maintenance charges are Rs 13 per sq ft a month that pushes the highest charges for a 5,000 sq ft duplex here to over Rs 65,000. The 48-storey, 3-wing complex has a concierge service, club house, sky garden on every fourth floor and 18,000 sq mt of open landscaped area.

Most property brokers who are marketing various luxury projects are already telling buyers that maintenance charges for new luxury apartments worth more than Rs 7-8 crore coming up in south and central Mumbai could easily be around Rs 50,000 a month.The scenario is no different in Gurgaon. DLF Aralias, a property offering concierge service, conference rooms, on-call service, guest services, restaurants, charges Rs 10 per sq ft as maintenance charges for its apartments. And apartment sizes here are 5,000-6,000 sq ft, while some duplex’s are of 10,000-11,000 sq ft size, pushing the total monthly maintenance to over Rs 1 lakh.“With projects now offering high quality services, maintenance charges have increased drastically. It is usually about 10% of the rent being charged in a building. For really high-end projects like Aralias, this figure would be around 20% of the rental value,” says Abhay Khemka of Khemka Investments & Properties, a real estate brokerage firm in Gurgaon.Other buildings in Gurgaon — DLF Pinnacle, DLF Magnolia, DLF Laburnum, Parsvnath Exotica, Vipul Belmonte, Unitech Heritage City, Unitech’s Uniworld City — charge between Rs 2-4 per sq ft. For a large 5,000 sq ft apartment, this would mean anywhere between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000 per sq ft. But in this Delhi suburb, where power cuts are a regularity, what also adds to the overall maintenance charge is the cost of running diesel power backups for which charges range from Rs 14-16 per unit, compared to power charges of Rs 4-5 per unit.Many of these high-end societies are maintained by facilities management divisions of international property consultants like Cushman & Wakefield, Jones Lang LaSalle India, CBRE South Asia and Knight Frank as well as local firms like Vipul Facility Management.