'True luxury is here to stay’: Isprava’s Dhimaan Shah

Isprava, the luxury real estate and hospitality brand, has grown from zero to Rs 1,000 crore over the past decade. Brothers Dhimaan and Nibhrant Shah walked away from investment banking careers in New York and London, returned to India, and rediscovered their love for Goa, where they had spent much of their childhood. They pursued their vision of creating distinctive homes in Goa, enhanced with a full suite of services, including end-to-end home management. From the very beginning, Isprava has offered a 24/7 concierge.  

One successful home concept led to another. Dhimaan recalls a key inflection point when the business turned profitable. He believes demand for luxury real estate is set to grow exponentially. Isprava’s customers range from industrialists and entrepreneurs to professionals such as lawyers and bankers.  

Most Isprava properties are located away from large cities but remain well connected to them. Beyond Goa, the company has developed homes in Alibaug and Kasauli, and has entered Karjat, where land prices have seen a CAGR of 25-30%. “India is growing leaps and bounds and the demand for premium offerings is only set to increase,” says Isprava Executive Director and Co-CEO Dhimaan Shah in a podcast with BT TV’s Consultant Editor and Anchor Aabha Bakaya. Edited excerpts:  

Did you have to put in some of your own money? Did you find early investors? What did it take to start the dream project?  

So, we actually convinced our father and he very generously agreed and we mortgaged his house, got a loan and that’s how we started the business. We bought a parcel of land, we used some of the money we had through this loan to build, built our first home, sold it, built our second home with the money from that, sold it, built our third home and so on and so forth and then I want to say close to 10 homes into what we were doing is when we started actually getting external investors. People started believing in our story, people started seeing that what we’re doing is completely different. The Indian real estate hadn’t seen anything like this. Imagine these massive homes, luxury, high-end homes, fully furnished, fully managed, fully serviced, delivery of homes ahead of time. And we had some great initial backers – the Godrej family, the Burman family.  

You’ve actually raised quite a bit of institutional capital recently. Tell us about that and tell us what the plan is in terms of the rollout and the kind of inventory you’re looking to build going ahead.  

Let me answer this by putting some numbers in context first. We now currently have about 450 homes under construction. These are in various stages of construction, some are in the pre-launch stage, pre-design stage and some close to completion. Approximately 400-410 of which are already sold.  

And if you could share the price point of these homes.  

So, 80% of these homes are in an average price point of about Rs 15 to 16 crore. About 20% of these homes are in the average price point about Rs 5-6 crore. That’s broadly the breakup today. We have, in addition, delivered about 185 homes now, close to 200 homes, in addition to what we have under construction. We’ve just sold a home for Rs 100 crore.  

This is across locations — Goa, Alibaug and Kasauli. We’re launching Karjat very soon as well. We realised the way to actually scale this business is to be deep in a location, rather than just being in several locations. That strategy doesn’t really work according to us.  

So, when we received some inbounds to raise capital, we were very fortunate again. Very high-quality private equity partners approached us. We didn’t really need to raise too much capital; fortunately, we were a profitable company. We’re very fortunate we’re partnering with Hill House in India, which is Alta Capital, led by Sid Gupta. He is a legendary investor, understands real estate, understands luxury. We raised US$100 million in capital, primarily, like I said, for growth, because we’re profitable.  

We wanted to go deeper. We started with Isprava and also layered on Lohono, our very high-end luxury management and rental brand. Lohono manages these homes and rents them in a short-term format — again, at the very top end of the market. We are a luxury house and our brands operate only in the luxury segment. We recently then launched The Chapter.  

If I wanted to rent a Lohono stay in Goa, what would be the average pricing?  

Anywhere between Rs 30,000 and 40,000 a night for a 3-4 bedroom home. We have six-bedroom and 10-bedroom homes, and we don’t have anything less than a three-bedroom home.  

What’s the kind of inventory or the number of rooms you have when it comes to Lohono?  

We have over 1,000 rooms in India alone. We take over really one-of-a-kind properties. In Rajasthan, we have some properties that belong to royal families. So, these are all really high-quality assets.  

You’re seeing enough demand to fill up inventory?  

Yes. Indians travel mostly in large groups with friends and family. We’re very social — we like to holiday together. High-end villas work extremely well because everything is private: your swimming pool, your living areas, your space. When you have all of that, the market just keeps growing.  

What does an Isprava or Lohono experience entail?  

If you look at the super-rich in India — Bollywood stars, cricketers, industrialists — they prefer luxury serviced villas. Almost nobody in that segment opts for hotels anymore. When you want privacy, true luxury and a differentiated experience, a luxury villa is the obvious choice.  

We have two strong rights to win in Lohono. One is the best product — no one in India has better homes on the Lohono platform. The second is our highly elevated service.  

Now you’ve also started The Chapter. Is that the next leg of growth?  

The way we see it, Isprava is our super-luxury brand, Lohono layers on top of everything, and The Chapter is our luxury brand, where the average ticket size is Rs 4-6 crore. These are fully furnished, beautifully designed homes, fully serviced by Lohono, all at around Rs 5 crore.  

The second-home or holiday-home trend accelerated during Covid. Do you think people are still looking for holiday homes or investing in luxury homes within their own cities?  

We don’t view ourselves as a second-home or holiday-home player at all. About 30-35% of our buyers use these homes as primary residences, meaning they spend 9-12 months a year there. Places like Alibaug and Goa are no longer just holiday destinations — people are moving there.  

Ninety-five per cent of our homeowners are end users. About 30% use these as semi-primary homes, staying there four to six months a year. The majority of our buyers fall into the primary or semi-primary category.  

Our cities are becoming increasingly unliveable. For half the year, air quality in Delhi is poor, and traffic in Mumbai is relentless. Wealthy Indians are therefore choosing to also have homes in places like Alibaug, Goa or the hills. This is reinforced by improving infrastructure — Goa has two world-class airports, Alibaug has strong connectivity, and South Mumbai to Karjat is just 60 minutes. The market is growing rapidly, and these homes are no longer just holiday assets.  

Who is your customer? Who is buying these luxury homes?  

Our buyers are professionals — bankers, lawyers, entrepreneurs and industrialists. We’re not just building what many consider some of the most beautiful homes in the world, but also layering them with robust services: airport transfers, full home management, housekeeping, pool cleaning, landscaping and more. We also have a strong in-house F&B programme. In luxury, all of this matters, and we’ve focused on it from day one.  

Is luxury real estate here to stay? Is it a long-term opportunity?  

The short answer is yes, absolutely — it’s here to stay. The longer answer is that the word “luxury” is often overused today. Everyone labels their product as luxury. But true luxury is enduring. Across real estate, hospitality and F&B, there are people doing exceptional work and genuinely raising the bar — and that is what will last.