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Several Bollywood stars have been in the news for buying apartments across luxury projects in Mumbai. In fact, many buildings located in areas such as Bandra, Khar, Lokhandwala in Andheri and Worli are known to be the favourite hunting grounds for film stars. Their motives to invest in real estate may include investment, rental yield, end-use and even emotional purchase wherein a property could be valued purely on the basis of the actor’s nostalgia.
Real estate experts point out that most Bollywood stars invest in real estate either at the stage of project launch or around the time when the property is almost ready for possession. The main reasons for property investment could be for end-use or for portfolio diversification and tax savings.
A project by Oberoi Realty recently shot into limelight after it was reported that Amitabh Bachchan and his son Abhishek Bachchan bought 10 apartments worth ₹24.95 crore in Mumbai’s Mulund area in a project named Oberoi Eternia.
The trend is not limited to residential real estate projects but holds true for commercial commercial buildings in Mumbai. Several Bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Manoj Bajpayee, Sara Ali Khan, Kartik Aaryan, and Ajay Devgn own commercial space in the Signature building in Andheri area of Mumbai.
According to data collated by SquareYards, a real estate consultancy firm, residential and commercial real estate are preferred investments for Bollywood stars. While celebrities prefer to diversify their portfolios across asset classes, residential properties remain the clear favorite, making up 62% of all transactions. Commercial real estate is also gaining momentum, with celebrities eyeing multiple properties in key micro-markets for reliable rental returns, according to SquareYards.
Between 2020 and 2024, Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan topped the list with ₹194 crore investment into real estate; Jhanvi Kapoor has invested ₹169 crore; Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and family has invested ₹156 crore in real estate; Ajay Devgn and Kajol have invested ₹110 crore and Shahid Kapoor has invested ₹59 crore, according to the data compiled by SquareYards.
Data shared by Square Yards also showed that apartment prices in the Oberoi 360 West project were at 78,000 per sq ft in 2017, around the time the project received its RERA registration. The price was around ₹1.37 lakh per sq ft at the time Shahid Kapoor bought a property in the project.
Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan invested in the Eternia project when the market price was at ₹30,700 per sq ft. The project received RERA registration in August 2017 when the price was around ₹21,000 per sq ft. Square Yards said that these prices may vary by location and property specific factors and that there may be a time lag between the property purchase and registration of the transaction with the IGR which can cause property values to differ from the market values in the recorded month.
Property portfolio of Bollywood stars
Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan and his son Abhishek recently purchased a total of 10 apartments in Oberoi Realty’s Eternia at Mulund West for a sum of ₹24,94,82,640 or ₹24.95 crore. The latest investment has upped their 2024 realty portfolio to over ₹100 crore. In the last five years, between 2020 and 2024, the father-son duo purchased properties across India worth around ₹220 crore. During the same period, they exited from a few, including those they had invested in prior to 2020, such as flats in Oberoi 360 West and ancestral property at Gulmohar Park in South Delhi.
Investments in new destinations
Among the multiple real estate investments of the Allahabad-born Amitabh Bachchan is a residential plot in Ayodhya and Alibaug from The House of Abhinandan Lodha for ₹14.5 crore.
Asked if land purchased by Bollywood stars was a real deal or an endorsement, Abhinandan Lodha, chairman of the company, had told HT in an interview earlier that repeat purchases by Amitabh Bachchan in Ayodhya and Alibaug were not endorsements. “We are clear that we do not want endorsements. Amitabh Bachchan’s deal was picked up from the registrar’s office. No quasi endorsements are happening on this front.”
Land purchase by Bollywood stars
Bollywood actor Kriti Sanon in July purchased a 2,000-square foot plot in Alibaug, a second home destination near Mumbai. Sanon has purchased the land parcel in the Sol de Alibaug project by The House of Abhinandan Lodha, as per a company statement.
“Buying land on my own has been quite an empowering journey and I have had my eyes on Alibaug, for a while. I was pretty clear about what I was looking for – peace, privacy and a great investment addition to my portfolio,” Kirti Sanon said, commenting on the deal.
Commercial properties
Karishma Kapoor, Ajay Devgn, Amitabh Bachchan have all purchased commercial properties to earn high rental yields. The return on investment for an office property often works out to be higher than that of a residential property.
Several Bollywood stars have been in the news in the last few months for either purchasing commercial properties in Mumbai or for leasing them out to earn high rental yields.
Ajay Devgn had leased an office space in Andheri West in Mumbai for a monthly rent of ₹9 lakh for five years, documents accessed by Propstack showed.
Amitabh Bachchan, who purchased four commercial units in Oshiwara for around ₹7 crore each last year had also rented the properties for an annual consideration of ₹2.07 crore.
Apart from Bachchan, actors Kartik Aryan, Manoj Bajpayee, Sarah Ali Khan and his wife Kajol have also purchased office spaces in Lotus Signature tower in Andheri West last year.
In April last year, Sonu Nigam had purchased two commercial properties spread across an area of 5547 sq ft in Andheri for ₹11.37 crore, documents shared by Propstack had shown earlier.
Kangana Ranaut, a BJP MP and Bollywood actor, has purchased an office space in Mumbai’s Andheri area for ₹1.56 crore, according to property registration documents accessed by Propstack.
For end-use and privacy
Privacy is another factor that comes into play when Bollywood stars decide to buy property.
Deepika Padukone’s firm KA Enterprises recently bought a 1845 sq ft apartment for ₹17.8 crore in Mumbai’s Bandra West area for ₹17.7 crore, documents accessed by Zapkey.com showed. The apartment is located next to her mother-in-law Anju Bhavnani’s house.
Amitabh Bachchan, had purchased two apartments of ₹6.78 crore in Oberoi Sky City project of Oberoi Realty in Borivali area of Mumbai earlier on the same floor where his son Abhishek Bachchan had bought six apartments for ₹15.42 crore, according to documents accessed by Zapkey.com
Ritesh Mehta, Senior Director and Head – West, East & North India, Residential Services, Developer Initiatives, JLL India told HT that real estate purchases by Bollywood stars may not always lead to an increase in sales. However, they do help boost the profile of the location as prospective buyers view the project and the area more favourably.
“Most Bollywood stars buy property either at the time when a project is at the drawing board stage or is about to be launched or when it is ready for possession. A sale at the launch stage helps the project get publicity. Some stars enter the investment cycle at the time of possession. Such buys are generally for saving tax or portfolio diversification. There have also been instances of Bollywood stars buying multiple properties in the same floor to maintain privacy or purchasing a property where they once lived at more than the market price for emotional reasons.”
According to Sandeep Reddy, co-founder of Zapkey, lifestyle combined with residing in premium localities that are hotspots for celebrities dictate such purchases. It’s because of this reason that South Mumbai and Western suburbs, especially Bandra are preferred by Bollywood stars. The second reason is investment for capital appreciation or rental yields or portfolio diversification.
Emotional purchase
Earlier this year, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan bought two floors worth ₹37 crore in the same building in South Delhi where his father and mother Gauri Khan once lived. Aryan bought the property in Delhi’s Panchsheel Park, where Shah Rukh Khan owns the ground floor and basement. The transaction, registered in May 2024, saw Aryan pay ₹2.64 crore in stamp duty.
This is an example of an emotional real estate purchase.
“An emotional real estate purchase is all about feeling nostalgic for a property to which one is emotionally attached to, a house or neighbourhood, where one grew up in. It has sentimental value more than anything else. Spending even a few crores extra at a certain stage in life does not really matter to accomplished people buying such properties. It’s all about getting back to your roots and the people you valued in your early years,” said Amit Goyal, MD of India Sotheby’s International Realty.
“Premium on such transactions may set a pricing benchmark but it may not be sustainable. While the transaction may be referred to for future property transactions in the micro market, but it will ultimately be determined by demand and supply dynamics,” he added.
Akshay Kumar in an interview with Ranveer Allahabadia for his YouTube channel, had spoken about Don Bosco Public School and his childhood in Mumbai. Akshay also said that he soon plans to buy the house where he used to pay ₹500 as rent.
Disturbance quotient?
There have also been instances of boutique developers wanting to sell housing units to only industrialists, CEOs or CXOs and not to Bollywood stars as often Bollywood stars may add to the ‘disturbance quotient’ in a housing project where several high networth individuals reside.
