Real estate entrepreneur Vijay Raheja has lined up a raft of projects in Mumbai and Bangalore for the next six months to a year—braving a slump in the property market after splitting the family business with his brother in July—and started with a development targeted at the rich.

His company, V Raheja Design Construction launched its first project post the split on Dussehra—the Verena luxury villas spread over five acres in east Bangalore’s Whitefield neighborhood where each unit has been priced at Rs 6 crore.
“There are 40 villas, and all will be sold by invitation. Other residential and commercial projects will be launched gradually,” said a senior official at the company who manages the Bangalore operations, but did not want to be identified.
Raheja is working on projects including an IT park, Gigaplex, a residential project, Buena Vista, and a commercial property, Raheja Chambers, in the city.
In Mumbai, an information technology park is under construction.
Raheja and his younger brother, Deepak, split the 56-year-old B Raheja Builders between themselves and founded their own companies, ‘Mint’ reported on 7 July. The properties and projects of B Raheja Builders were divided between the brothers, with V Raheja Design taking over the construction of the new JW Marriott hotel at UB City in Bangalore.
“A Rs6 crore villa is overpriced where builders are unable to sell Rs3 crore houses in the same area,” Naresh Dandapat, regional director (south) at property consultancy Knight Frank India, said of the Verena villa project. But the official defended the pricing, saying, “They are exclusive and contemporary, and have been priced accordingly.”