Isprava's Bet: Can Bespoke Luxury Villas Be Built at Scale?

A decade ago, when brothers Dhimaan and Nibhrant Shah started building houses in Goa, the market's idea of luxury was fairly conventional: more marble, more glass, more square footage. Their own approach pointed elsewhere. One of the first pieces they acquired for an Isprava home was not furniture at all but the facade of a dilapidated haveli in Gujarat, which was removed, restored in a warehouse and shipped to Goa, where it became a large cabinet in a living and dining room.

That instinct — making a new house feel as though it has accumulated a history — still anchors Isprava Group, which the brothers now run as co-CEOs. What began as a boutique Goa developer has become a collection of businesses spanning luxury homes, villa rentals and a private club, with projects beyond Goa in places such as Alibaug and Kasauli. The central question facing the company is whether something meant to feel rare can be delivered at scale.

The Shahs maintain that no two Isprava houses are alike, with interiors starting from zero. One property may feature handcrafted tiles commissioned in small batches; another may use old teak furniture or architectural fragments salvaged from palaces and havelis. At one home, a birdbath is a repurposed haveli basin. At another, door handles were fashioned from the walking sticks of the owner's grandfather. Dhimaan says the preference is for objects so unusual that money alone cannot buy them.

Buyers, however, do not necessarily seek an overtly Indian aesthetic. Many are well travelled and arrive at initial meetings with photographs of homes they have experienced in Europe or Southeast Asia. The task is to translate a global expectation of luxury into a local setting. In Goa, that has meant keeping exterior architecture broadly within the region's Portuguese-influenced vocabulary while allowing interiors to turn more contemporary — sophisticated home automation and appliances alongside indigenous landscaping, reclaimed furniture and locally made finishes. Air and light are treated as non-negotiable in planning, and the company favours lower-density construction, leaving more of a site unbuilt than competitors. Dhimaan frames the approach as development that is additive to the natural environment rather than extractive.

Such claims invite scrutiny in a state where luxury construction is reshaping the very landscape that made it desirable. Isprava's account of its community relationships and investments in schools and civic infrastructure is best read alongside the views of those communities.

A second shift is visible in how these houses are used. The second home is no longer simply a place visited for a few weeks a year. India's growing market for managed villas has produced a hybrid: part private residence, part investment, part hotel. Isprava's hospitality arm, Lohono, formally launched a week before the Covid pandemic, manages homeowners' properties with housekeeping, landscaping, pool maintenance, security and concierge services. Roughly three-quarters of Isprava homeowners eventually place their houses in the rental system, allowing the property to earn while owners are away without losing hotel-grade service.

The line between home and hotel blurs in the details, where customisation is central. One film-enthusiast owner wanted a private cinema; another house hides a bedroom behind a bookcase. Homes have been redesigned around children, people with physical disabilities, elderly residents and, in at least one case, dogs whose owners wanted the best for their "family members". For these clients, luxury is less about displaying wealth than eliminating inconvenience: a wider passage, a bathroom with a reading nook, doors a dog can push open, a technician available at midnight to fix a faulty air conditioner, or a party arranged at short notice.

The service extends beyond the house itself. Solene, Isprava's private club in Goa, launched last year as a third space for homeowners and like-minded members. The company initially expected about 150 members; it now has more than twice that number and has stopped actively expanding membership.

The move from developer to hospitality company to club is deliberate. Dhimaan says the goal ten years ago was never to build a real estate business but to build a stable of luxury lifestyle brands. Isprava's model seeks to control almost the entire life of the luxury home — its architecture, interiors, furnishing, maintenance, rental and eventually the social world around it. That may be its greatest strength with its clientele.

Yet while the appeal of an Isprava house lies in the suggestion that it was made for one particular person in one particular place, the company is also building a scalable business. The question for its next decade is whether these houses can continue to feel like they belong to someone. "A home should feel collected, not assembled," Dhimaan says. He also points to privacy as an advantage, noting that buyers' details never appear in the press — a discretion he says clients deeply appreciate.