Hill homes turn premium as buyers seek managed second-home communities at holiday destinations

Hill residences are getting more expensive, with buyers moving away from traditional independent villas to gated and managed communities even for second homes.

Currently, the hills in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are witnessing property transactions worth over Rs 20 crore, with experts saying amenities are becoming a key consideration for HNIs when finalising a holiday home.

“With villas positioned at Rs 28 crore, a residence in the hills offers an entirely different proposition when compared with Rs 100 crore-plus luxury apartments in India’s metropolitan markets. The distinction is not merely financial; it lies in the scale, privacy, sense of ownership and rarity of the asset,” said Amar Kapoor, founder & CEO, Terra Grande by Eldeco.


Also read: India's wealthy are buying multiple luxury homes in the same project

Focused on second-home communities, Terra Grande plans to add three new projects to its portfolio in the next 12 months.

The second-home market is undergoing a structural shift, with value migrating from unorganised offerings toward branded, professionally developed and managed residences backed by good infrastructure across leisure destinations.

“The emergence of a sophisticated operator ecosystem is a key demand catalyst. The traditional ‘lock-and-leave’ asset is evolving into a lifestyle-led, yield-oriented product, with professional management, housekeeping, F&B and curated experiences transforming passive ownership into an actively managed residential experience,” said Shveta Jain, managing director, Residential Services, Savills India.

“This is also reflected in consumer sensibilities: affluent buyers are showing declining resistance to higher ticket sizes when the product genuinely merits the premium, increasingly valuing permanence, provenance, service and differentiated experiences. With truly exceptional hill inventory inherently constrained by geography and topography, we see continued headroom for premiumisation at the upper end of the market,” Jain said.

In the past, DLF and Tata Realty have launched projects in the hills, but for many years, no organised developer has launched a holiday-home project.

Experts said people who are buying Rs 100 crore apartments in metro cities want to buy similar communities at holiday destinations.

“In our company, buyers are moving beyond the conventional idea of a second home. We are creating legacy homes with the character, permanence and emotional resonance of a primary residence,” Kapoor said.