In A First, This Bandra Family Is Set To Turn Their 87-Year-Old Home Into Multistorey Tower: Here's How

(MENAFN- Live Mint) An 87-year-old bungalow, located in the tony suburb of Bandra in Mumbai, is about to go through a makeover, marking a historic first in the area.

While cooperative housing societies opting for self-redevelopment isn't uncommon, the Pereira family, who are the owners of the property, have decided to get their decades-old abode rebuilt into a multistory tower, financed entirely by them, Hindustan Times reported.

The owners plan to occupy the top four floors and sell the rest available floors to interested buyers.

Why do they want to redevelop the property?

Vivian Pereira and his wife, Myra Pereira, moved into the bungalow called 'Victoria Cottage' in 1975. The property is part of the larger St Sebastian Homes Cooperative Housing Society, which has 110 plots.

“For the last over 20 years, multiple builders have been approaching us with offers, but we never gave redevelopment a thought as that was never a priority for the family,” shared Pereira's son, Mark Pereira.

It was only in 2018 that the family began considering reconstructing their cottage. During that time, the state government also introduced the self-redevelopment scheme to encourage the practice in Mumbai.

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The Pereiras began discussing the project with developers in 2019, but always hit a dead end.“It was only in 2021, we got serious about self-redevelopment,” Myra Pereira said.

In 2024, the family attended a seminar on redevelopment and was convinced to reconstruct their 5,167 sq ft plot into a 14-storey building with a total area of 21,000 sq ft.

The Pereiras will move from their ground-floor residence to the top four floors, and the remaining flats will be sold in the open market.

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“In the first round, we intend to sell the flats to our relatives for a discounted price. Thereafter, it will be marketed in the open market as per the framework of the St Sebastian Homes Cooperative Housing Society,” Mark Pereira said.

Layout of the project

Currently, the cottage contains two bedrooms, a hall, a dining room, and a kitchen, the news report said.

The current blueprint of the project includes two parking towers, two basement floors, and 14 residential floors. Each floor will have two 2BHK (bedroom, hall, kitchen) apartments with three balconies each.

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As reported by Hindustan Times, the newly built apartments will have smart home technology, and the society will have a rainwater harvesting system, a sewage treatment plant, solar power, an electric vehicle charging station, and other such amenities. These facilities can also be customised as per one's requirement.

Financing the project

The construction cost of the project will vary depending upon the area being constructed. The apartments will be built at a construction cost of ₹4,500 per sq. ft and the staircase area at ₹2,200 per sq. ft. Each flat will be built in an area of 875 sq. ft and 909 sq. ft.

To finance the project, the Pereiras will personally invest 10% of the cost and loan the rest from a bank.

By 2026, the family will have to vacate the property, and in the next two-and-a-half years, the construction will have transformed their Victoria Cottage into a multistory Victoria Cooperative Housing Society, as per the report.

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