According to a JLL report, approximately 45,000 luxury housing units were launched in financial year 2016 with the top nine cities constituting 21 per cent of the total residential launches.

Bengaluru leads the list with 30 per cent of luxury home launches followed by Mumbai which comprised 17 per cent of the launches across India. Bengaluru also leads in luxury home sales constituting 29 per cent of the total in financial year 2016 followed by Mumbai reporting 16 per cent of sales. Pune comes third with 15 per cent of sales. In total, 47,000 luxury units were sold in the top nine cities accounting for 17 per cent of the total residential sales in the country.

"Evidently, the much-hyped gloom and doom story is vastly exaggerated. Media stories – which predicted that luxury housing in India is finished – lost sight of the fact that luxury housing caters to a specific segment of demand which, like the demand for budget and mid-income housing, has not gone away. India’s wealthier home buyers still want high-class homes with all the bells and whistles of sophistication in great locations," said Ashwinder Raj Singh, CEO (residential services) of JLL India.

Vivek Singhal, spokesman of M3M Group, echoed a similar sentiment. "The share of luxury housing in the overall housing market may come down marginally. However, this is due to the overall increase in the housing market size. With rapid GDP growth, India is poised to become a $4-trillion economy in the next five-seven years. This will result in substantial increase in the number of millionaires and HNIs, driving the demand for luxury housing. However, luxury housing requires a high level of meticulous planning, positioning, and branding of projects," Singhal said.