There’s a new uber-rich class in eastern India and their spending is beginning to change Calcutta’s skyline and shopping landscape. From apartments, cars and jewellery and watches to designer clothes and furniture, super-luxury products and services are finding takers in Calcutta and more companies are getting into the act to meet demand.

For starters, there’s Atmosphere — a dramatic new “cloud” high-rise apartment development commissioned by West Bengal’s Forum Projects. Award-winning Singapore-based architectural firm Arc Studio has designed this “sculpture in the sky”, with an aerial corridor linking the luxury twin towers.

Or, look at another deluxe apartment dwelling, Mani Vivara, being built by Calcutta’s Mani real-estate group, that’s also set to loom over the city. A few kilometres away in super-smart Alipore, Godrej Platinum, a stylish contemporary
design project, is being constructed by Mumbai’s Godrej Properties. Needless to say, with the sky-high designs come sky-high prices. At upwards of Rs 10 crore for a four-bedroom flat — some of the bigger ones are priced north of
Rs 15 crore — these buildings have some of the costliest new apartments ever sold in the city.

“There’s a burgeoning super-rich class in eastern India and in Calcutta in particular, who’re extending their discerning tastes to every luxury commodity,” says Girish Shah, chief marketing officer of Godrej Properties.

The outlook has changed substantially from even a couple of years ago when no one would have expected, for instance, French luxury yacht brand Prestige to come calling in Calcutta. Now it’s showing off its five-crore rupee Prestige 500 model — which can accommodate 12 — to prospective buyers in the city. “Calcutta’s still a virgin market for us, but with plans to build a marina, we’re hopeful about business in the city,” says Michel Francois, Prestige Yachts’ sales director.

That marina, by the way, is the tentatively named Marina Grand planned for the River Hooghly that’s a brainchild of city-based yachting promoters, Marina Infra Projects. Plans call for the marina to have berths for 50 vessels along with a yacht club. The company wants to develop “India’s first urban yacht marina” on the river bank, exploiting what managing director Samir Prasad sees as the Hooghly’s “vast, untapped potential” for yachting. “We’ve already applied for a licence and permission for building should be granted next year,” Prasad says, adding construction would likely take another “two-to-three years”.

Also on the cards is a 6,00,000sqft luxury residential space overlooking the marina. “The socialist perception of Calcutta is no more. There are big spenders in the city now,” says Gautama Dutta, director of Mumbai-based boat dealers Marine Solutions, which sells Prestige yachts.

On the leisure front, meantime, there’s also Vedic Village GreenTech City where Golf Grove is coming up — that’s a new Championship Golf Course  and Golf Villas. “This will be Calcutta’s first modern, private, PGA-standard, 18-hole golf course located close to the airport,” says Raj Modi, Vedic Village GreenTech City’s chairman and managing director. The first nine holes will be ready for play by end-2016 and the total 18 holes will be completed by 2018. This golf club will be open mainly for members who must be residents of Golf Villas which cost Rs 4 crore-to-Rs 4.5 crore or Golf Apartments priced between Rs 60 lakh and Rs 70 lakh in GreenTech City.

Now, let’s run the numbers on what’s happening in Calcutta’s wealth stakes. According to consultancy New World Wealth, Calcutta is number three among Indian cities in terms of high net-worth individuals — otherwise known as HNIs. According to the company, some 8,700 people worth over $1 million (about Rs 6.5 crore) live here while the number with $10 million (about Rs 65 crore) is 560. The corresponding figures for Mumbai are 41,200 and 2,690, and for Delhi 20,600 and 1,340. What’s more, 228 of Calcutta’s 560 super-HNIs boast of a net worth of over $30 million (about Rs 200 crore) and  over the next decade, that number is projected to double.

Says Samantak Das, research head at real-estate company Knight Frank India: “Calcutta’s seeing a demographic shift of financial decision-makers.” He adds that the new generation affluent Calcuttan “is showing its willingness to spend on luxury items” and, unlike their parents, they’re more open to big-ticket purchases as long as they’re getting value for money.

Cars are certainly one of the goods on which the rich are willing to splurge. According to Abdul Majeed, national automotive leader at PwC, eastern India accounts for 12 per cent-to-15 per cent of luxury cars sold countrywide and Calcutta alone represents about half that figure, contributing 6 per cent to 8 per cent to national sales. That translates to about 3,000 cars a year for all luxury brands.

“The luxury car market in eastern India has seen a tremendous growth spurt with the emergence of a more ambitious middle-class with increased purchasing power,” says Audi India head Joe King. For Mercedes-Benz India, the Calcutta market has grown at a whopping 38 per cent over the previous year in the first nine months of 2015, faster than its overall growth of 34 per cent, says Roland Folger, Mercedes-Benz India MD & CEO.

For Jaguar Land Rover customers in Calcutta have been looking for sporty and performance-driven cars. The city was the first to buy many of its performance cars such as the Jaguar F-Type convertible, Range Rover Sport SVR and Jaguar XKR-S.

On the luxury goods front, demand is also surging. Two years ago, Quest mall opened as Calcutta’s  biggest luxury brands destination. “We realised Calcutta people had similar shopping aspirations to those in Mumbai and Delhi and wanted to up their indulgence levels, but they couldn’t because they didn’t have any option in the city,” says Quest Properties India vice-president Sanjeev Mehra. Quest decided to take the plunge and it seems clear it was a right decision.

For instance, a year ago luxury watchmaker Breitling opened the doors of its first boutique in India in the mall. Now it’s selling special limited edition models here that aren’t available anywhere else  in the country. “We have pilots and connoisseurs stepping into our store and enquiring about our watches,” says Breitling vice-president Jean-Paul Girardin, who’s gratified by the “very good” response the company has received in Calcutta for its watch range costing up to Rs 40 lakh.

Meanwhile, Jyoti Goenka, co-owner of Pitter-platter, a super-luxury table, dinner and glassware store which opened in Quest two years ago, says: “Since our launch, we’ve definitely witnessed a shift in buyers’ tastes here and an increased willingness to spend more” in buying exclusive brands from Rosenthal to Wedgwood. Among items in demand are six-place Wedgwood dinner sets at  Rs 2.5 lakh and Rosenthal wine glasses at Rs 37,000 a pair.

And it’s not just demand for imported luxury that’s rising. Local entrepreneurs, too, are pitching products in this space. Husband-wife duo Shrivant and Devina More design bespoke luxury interiors for kids. Their recently launched 1,200sqft Kaji Kids store offers to turn your child’s living space into a junior wonderland with fairy-tale-inspired décors, handcrafted premium-branded European and US toys and super-plush furnishings. “Earlier, it was all about investing in products that garnered returns like jewellery or property, but now the younger generation with higher disposable incomes doesn’t mind spending more on doing up their homes to live and entertain in style,” notes Devina.

For grown-ups, Scarlet Splendour, founded by city-based businessman Ashish Bajoria and his interior-designer sister Suman Kanodia, is Calcutta’s new stop for luxury furniture among discerning city-dwellers. While small collectibles cost about Rs 5,000 to start, prices quickly climb all the way to Rs 22 lakh. Says Ashish: “Our furniture must resemble a piece of art in the room.”

In fashion and accessories, too, high-end is gaining ground. Celebrity designer duo and brothers Shantanu and Nikhil Mehra, who’ve dressed the best of Bollywood like Hrithik Roshan and Ranveer Singh, say Calcutta was a natural location to open their first flagship menswear boutique. “When we launched our draped kurtas and bandi jackets, Calcutta was the first place where people lapped it up. They wore it with style and ordered it before Delhi-ites. We knew we were on the right path,” Nikhil fondly recalls.

And jewellery brand Amrapali, whose fine jewellery pieces start from Rs 50,000 and go up to a few lakhs, has opened up in fashionable Forum Mall. Initially, it retailed only its silver jewellery collection but it’s now opened an exclusive gold jewellery boutique too. “Calcutta falls under one of our fastest-growing markets. We didn’t have any presence in the East, so why not start with the City of Joy?” says Tarang Arora, creative head and CEO of Amrapali Jaipur.

The fact is, of course, that Calcutta is the buying destination for people from surrounding states and also buyers from Dhaka. Some ultra-rich business people from other eastern states who travel to Calcutta regularly on business are now buying second homes in the city “where they get the comfort of a home-away-from-home”, says Godrej Properties’ Shah. 

So, in short, next time you spy a Mercedes-Benz S-Class rolling out of the gates of an exclusive condominium, don’t be surprised because, from the looks of it, there’ll be many more of these premium cars and other luxury goods on display.

By Yashodeep Sengupta,  Shilpi Guha, Radhika Sen, Oindrila Mukherjee, Lubna Salim and Abhijit Mitra