Editor’s Desk
Mumbai’s Buildings Have More Names Than Residents
Mumbai may soon run out of land, but it appears to have an unlimited supply of adjectives.
Mayura Shanbaug
Editor,
And there is method behind this madness.
Mumbai’s redevelopment market has crossed 1,000 projects since 2020, with 1,094 society redevelopment projects covering about 432 acres, according to Knight Frank India data reported in June. Redevelopment accounted for 15% of the city’s residential sales in 2025 and the first half of 2026, compared with just 6% during 2016-21.
This is not cosmetic urban renewal. It is becoming one of Mumbai’s principal engines of housing supply.
The irony is that while the buildings are getting taller, their names are getting grander still.
A society once identified by a simple building number can now acquire a name that sounds as though it belongs on the Las Vegas Strip. The old structure disappears, the new tower rises, the brochure arrives, and suddenly a neighbourhood society has become a “premium lifestyle destination”.
The marketing department, apparently, has discovered vertical mobility before the residents do.
There is nothing inherently wrong with attractive branding. Developers are selling aspirations, and Mumbai’s property market has always monetised aspiration particularly well. But when nomenclature begins doing the work of infrastructure, the joke becomes expensive.
Mumbai still faces a fundamental housing problem: affordability. Recent industry data shows that residential prices across major cities rose about 7% year-on-year in 2026, while higher borrowing costs are expected to put additional pressure on homebuyers.
Meanwhile, the redevelopment pipeline could generate nearly 59,000 new homes worth around Rs 1.5 trillion by 2031.
That makes the real question rather simple: will these new towers merely look new, or will they make Mumbai meaningfully better?
A building called Grande Heights cannot compensate for inadequate parking, poor drainage, weak public infrastructure or an unaffordable home.
Mumbai does not need every building to sound luxurious. It needs redevelopment to deliver what the word actually promises: development.
Until then, perhaps the most honest name for Mumbai’s next residential tower would be The Grand Rename.
At least nobody could accuse it of false advertising.
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