Gurugram: Living in a luxury residential society comes with its own set of pressures, said a young resident: One always has to look a certain way because you never know who you might run into downstairs — Orry, Amit Shah, or Arvind Kejriwal.
That’s what the high life is like at The Camellias by DLF in Gurugram, the most expensive pincode. India’s most exclusive residential society is home to many of India’s highest net-worth individuals — startup founders and CEOs rub shoulders with sporting legends, politicians come by for casual meetings, and musicians and artists entertain residents at private shows.
But the convenience of condominium culture is not what’s drawing people to Camellias. It’s the social capital and the promise of unlimited potential: This is where the country’s most successful people live, also where business happens. Forget moving to Bengaluru if you’re looking for startup funding — just hold a fundraising round in Camellias. Living here is like LinkedIn for the super-rich.
In a world where proximity to power adds to one’s social status, The Camellias is proof that power centres can shift. And in the nation’s capital, a new power center has risen — not in Lutyens’ Delhi or South Delhi, but all the way in the suburbs of Gurugram.
“The truth is that the Camellias is out of everybody’s comfort zone!” said interior designer Nomita Kohli, who designed apartments for a few clients in Camellias. “Nobody has ever lived at The Oberoi for 365 days a year! Everyone’s travelled and visited fancy places, but no one’s lived at a seven-star resort full-time — until now,” she said
And Camellias makes it all worth it, drawing the elite away from independent ‘kothis’ in South Delhi to capacious flats in high towers. Apartments go for around Rs 100 crore and a state-of-the-art clubhouse allows residents to enjoy everything from a karaoke bar to a Himalayan salt room. Nannies take children to a private bowling alley instead of a playground with a sandpit, and older residents play cards in a bespoke poker room.
The city sounds of busy Gurugram streets melt away to zen-garden calmness, with soft jazz music playing at exactly the right volume to offset birdsong and the pitter-patter of water features. Suited employees greet guests and residents with smiles. Even the air smells expensive, an indescribable combination of white florals and money.
Real estate company DLF has somehow managed to crack the code of the luxury market. By offering facilities as luxurious as the best international seven-star resort, it has drawn India’s elite away from every previous marker of social status — and transplanted them to what is often summarily dismissed as Delhi’s suburbs. And now it plans to up the ante with an even more luxe development: the upcoming Dahlias, which promises to be the most expensive project in India’s real estate history.
“In the Camellias, you’re not in Gurugram — you are part of a global luxury condominium.”
“In the Camellias, you’re not in Gurugram — you are part of a global luxury condominium. Most of the residents here really don’t know much about Gurugram, but it’s a very self-contained, highly secure, luxurious community with all services,” said one owner resident, who, at 67, is a retired entrepreneur who now spends his time mentoring startups, angel investing, travelling and playing golf. “DLF knows the art of developing a pincode very well.”
The hustle of startup culture
The Camellias is no sleepy condominium society. All the action is happening behind closed doors — or within the ample facilities the clubhouse offers.
Residents are closing deals, finding acquisitions, sanctioning investments and networking in between private pilates classes or at the gym — equipped with all the usual plus on-demand fitness trainers, saunas, cryotherapy chambers and a rock-climbing wall. They bump into each other at the movie theater, or the salon while getting a manicure, at the restaurant during Sunday brunch, or during coffee runs at a world-class bakery that they rely on for last-minute birthday cakes. But this bumping isn’t the choiceless and organic way in which Delhi neighbours run into each other in elevators and parks.
“You move to Camellias to either become the people you want to be, or for the people you want to be around”
The residents include the founders or top executives of startups like MakeMyTrip, Lenskart, Zomato, EaseMyTrip, Boat, Noise. It’s also home to several longtime DLF residents — Camellias is the third and the best of DLF’s societies, which started with Aralias and then Magnolias, slowly dialling up the luxe factor with each property. Thrown into the mix are several business families who’ve sold their homes in Delhi and moved with their joint families to live a lifestyle that reflects their wealth.
“You move to Camellias to either become the people you want to be, or for the people you want to be around,” said 28-year-old Nikita Kapoor, a long-term resident of the DLF properties, having lived in both Aralias and Magnolias. “Social status sometimes drives the move. It’s a very real scenario — the kind of conversations you can have, the investments, business deals and partnerships you can make — all these are very important. The social circles tend to be very tight in these communities,” she said.
And that’s the biggest shift among buyers when it comes to moving to a property like the Camellias. Social capital has overtaken normal considerations like proximity to top schools or one’s workplace. Plus, one might end up playing squash with Shikhar Dhawan, who recently bought an apartment there. The entire Australian cricket team enjoyed a drink after a day of golfing while they were in India during the World Cup.
“Camellias isn’t just a condominium, it’s a rich boys club and one of a kind development,” said real estate consultant Udit Bhandari. “It cannot be replicated even by DLF owing to its location and the golf-centric development of DLF Phase 5.”
“I’ve noticed that a lot of people are moving here because they want to network — it really benefits business. The network that our societies offer is a big part of DLF.”
While golfing has always been a networking sport among the elite, living in the golf-adjacent property only creates more of an opportunity to seal deals. It’s made younger, hungrier entrepreneurs invest in a move to Camellias. People hold wealth management classes regularly at Camellias, and rent out rotating gallery spaces within the society to make a name for their brand. Art galleries hold private art shows, and brands like Baccarat showcase home goods for residents to buy. Pop-up shops are regularly put up, because all the people whose attention is worth having live at Camellias.
“I’ve noticed that a lot of people are moving here because they want to network — it really benefits business. The network that our societies offer is a big part of DLF,” said one young resident of Camellias, who’s about to strike out from their family business with their own entrepreneurial venture. “If you have to compare Camellias with other societies, even Magnolias — and you have to compare, because Camellias really sets the standard — it’s impossible to match the luxury Camellias offers.”
And being able to afford the luxury is what’s changed the game.
When Aralias first took off, DLF reportedly took care to extensively interview each resident, only allowing a certain milieu to buy apartments. Magnolias was a much larger property with more to offer, and it was less about the buyer’s background and more about whether they could buy the apartment.
So when Camellias was conceptualised and built, being able to afford the price tag per square foot was all that mattered. And by the looks of it, plenty can — even though the complex is about 80 per cent occupied, buyers often buy multiple homes and combine them.
The changing social nature of who’s able to buy properties in Camellias is no longer a cause for complaint. People are no longer turning up their noses if someone dresses flashily or insists on name-dropping or wearing every brand under the sun — they’re simply turning the other way. Living at Camellias is putting their money where their mouth is.
“Realistically, in which society do you hang out with all your neighbours? You always end up finding your people,” said one young resident. “There aren’t any social tensions.”
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Becoming The Joneses
Living at the Camellias is not about keeping up with the Joneses. It’s about becoming the Joneses, a resident said.
Luxury here is a way of life. The interior decorations and the concierge service puts most five-star hotels to shame. The corridors are like the marbled walkways of fancy malls, except they line a Le Marche grocery store and an Artemis clinic and pharmacy instead of Gucci, Ferragamo or Dior showrooms.
There simply is no global comparison for such a society like the Camellias —expensive pincodes like Delhi’s Amrita Sher Gill Marg and Mumbai’s Pali Hill have always been home to individuals, not necessarily a gated community like the Camellias. It’s so glamorous that it could be located anywhere on the map — from London to Dubai to Los Angeles. Time, space and culture all melt away to create the residents’ own little luxurious world, expansive in its scope and offerings.
And living a truly luxurious life isn’t for the average person. One has to embody the outside luxury of Camellias within their private homes, where the rule of thumb is to spend between 10 and 20 per cent of the property’s value on decorating it.
Buying an apartment isn’t enough: what one does inside their home is a marker of their unique identity, taste, and status. If someone wants to display their hat or sunglasses or shoe collection, they want to have their space customised to reflect that — and nothing spells modern luxury like the ability to customise, according to Kohli.
It also points to a new sensibility when it comes to spending money. People are no longer restricting their spending to decorating their living rooms and dining rooms, they’re also going all out on their bedrooms — it shouldn’t be a surprise that top executives who live stressful lives prioritise the quality of their mattresses and insist on decorating with calming crystals to maximise the quality of their sleep. After all, what spells luxury like getting a full night’s sleep?
Newer residents are allegedly more concerned about their apartment being as fancy as their neighbours — more secure residents are not concerned about what their home looks like to the outside eye, and less concerned about judgement in general.
More comfortable residents wear casual clothes in society, hanging out in the clubhouse dressed in jeans or athleisure and barely paying attention to guests drenched in haute couture, heels and high fashion brands as they pass through the entryway — except when they stop in their tracks to gasp in awe and grab a photo of the residential towers as they come into view, reflected on the pristine, dark azure water feature.
As French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu wrote, “taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier.”
But those who live there almost certainly own other properties, whether in Delhi-NCR or not. For some, it’s their second home, while for others like the 67-year-old owner-resident, it’s just their place of residence.
“Moving here was absolutely the best decision we could make,” he said. “For a lot of people, moving here is an investment. For us, it’s our home. It’s good luxury, it’s comfortable, it’s well-managed — of course, once you have the right profile, it’s an aspirational place to live.”
The luxury housing market in India is witnessing an exceptional surge, with sales increasing by 37.8 per cent year-on-year during January and September 2024, according to Anshuman Magazine, Chairman & CEO – India, South-East Asia, Middle East & Africa, CBRE. The premium and luxury housing categories contributed 16 per cent to overall housing sales in the first nine months of the year, up from 6 per cent in 2019. Launches for these categories comprised about 19 per cent of the total launches during January-September 2024. Cities like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and Hyderabad have emerged as key markets, collectively accounting for nearly 90 per cent of the total luxury housing sales across India, according to CBRE data.
“The luxury market’s performance has been further increased by the growing aspirational class and the rising number of NRIs and savvy investors turning to India’s premium real estate segment,” said Magazine.
It’s not just a trend — it’s a broader shift in buying behaviour. Developers are racing against each other to outdo the luxe factor, tweaking facilities each time. It’s a game of creative imagination, of thinking the unthinkable. DLF already holds 25 per cent of the market share in the ultra luxury segment, with the Camellias’ sale value alone going at around Rs. 13,208 crore according to real estate analytics company PropEquity.
That’s why people are keeping an eye on what DLF’s latest property, the Dahlias, will offer. It’s next rung on the luxe ladder. PropEquity estimates the Dahlias’ sale value will be twice as high as the Camellias, with prices starting at Rs. 80,000 per sq ft for apartments that are 11,000 sq ft on average — similar to the Camellias, but with a higher sq ft pricing range.
Bhandari said that the overall rarity of such properties in Delhi-NCR has added to the hype around DLF’s societies — the other factors that have “propelled Camellia to its present day glory” include the return on investment that all buyers of Golf Links properties have experienced, as well as the ability to adjust capital gains from equity sales.
Luxury is an ever-evolving idea. Having a swimming pool and a gym inside a condo was considered a luxury in the late 1990s India. Today, every Noida and Meerut condo has these and more.
“Going forward, we expect further premiumisation of such amenities to emerge as a differentiating factor for luxury residential projects in the country,” explained Magazine.
A society within one’s own
The society that started in Lutyens’ Delhi moved to South Delhi, which then moved to South Delhi’s farmhouses, and now finds itself in Gurugram’s Camellias.
In many ways, the story of Camellia’s popularity and exclusivity is the story of New India. One in which everyone regardless of class background has a shot at success if they can afford it, no matter how they afford it.
The younger generation of residents doesn’t always blend into the same monoculture of foreign-educated undergraduate degrees. Some have the safety net of taking over a family business, while others are determined to strike out on their own.
“Living here has also changed what I look for in vacations, because my home already has everything. Luxury is a given, now I look for experiences when I travel.”
Now the new challenge is to stay in this bubble as long as you can. A WhatsApp group of older parents has been made to try and set their single children up with each other, so they can live happily ever after in Camellias. It’s like Camellias has its own Bharat Matrimony.
“Living here has also changed what I look for in vacations, because my home already has everything. Luxury is a given, now I look for experiences when I travel,” explained one young resident, whose next vacation will be to the Middle East to catch Coldplay perform in Abu Dhabi.
Another resident said that Camellias already gives him whatever he’s looking for. If he wants to party, he can do that at one of the two bars that are available to residents. If he wants to host a party, a world-class restaurant is ready to cater multiple cuisines. A full-time DLF events team organises festivals and events, including movie screenings at the luxury theatre and private concerts by the likes of Vishal-Shekhar.
Essentially, residents never have to leave. The outside world just pales into a colourless blob of sameness.
“When you see large glass towers, the question is: should I be throwing stones just because it’s there?” asked an owner-resident. “Or should I move there?”
(Edited by Ratan Priya)
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