Home, sweet holiday home! Burgeoning segment draws tourists and investors alike

The likes of Tatas, Mahindras, ITC, DHFL and others are investing crores of rupees in various locations across the country, such as Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Uttarakhand, and other states to build branded holiday homes. Goa continues to top the chart in the holiday homes segment.

Sanjeev Bhambri, Managing Director of 3B Group of Hotels, says, “I am very bullish on the holiday home/villa segment. After much delay, it has taken off and it is the right time to invest in the branded homestay segment.”

His company is developing properties for the likes of Hyatt, Marriott and others in Dehradun. “While the demand for holiday homes is rising, timely delivery of the property and quality service will be of utmost importance. Thus, in the coming years, branded holiday homes/villas will dominate this segment as service delivery will become a challenge for small players,” Bhambri says.

Hospitality brands prefer quality to quantity in managing such spaces.

Meanwhile, players like Rhythm ResiTel have developed a model in which retail investors can buy resort suite units as a convenient property investment that will yield long-term secured returns as well as capital appreciation. The company offers a return over investment of 8-10 percent.

Vaibhav Jatia, Managing Director of Rhythm ResiTel, says, “While the tourism space is booming, having a new and asset-light model is crucial for the hospitality sector.”

Cash-flow management will be critical for this model to take off, industry experts feel. The company has witnessed a larger appetite among non-residential Indians residing in Gulf countries for this segment, who are looking at investing in homestays/villas that are managed by developers but fetch them returns.

As the appetite of domestic tourists grows, this burgeoning segment is riple for the picking.