Nowadays, people are going for houses with a terrace garden, shelling out extra cash even in a period of slowdown, says Vivek Shukla.

Imagine a situation where you enjoy the light drizzle or even a brisk shower on the terrace garden of your house. It goes without saying that after the heat of a sweltering summer, you will grab such a dream opportunity.

To enjoy such rare moments in the fast and chaotic life of metros, many people, of course rich, hardly mind paying more rent so as to secure rights to a terrace garden on their house.

And street-smart landlords too are converting their barren terraces, generally used for dumping old things, into green fields. They are developing mini-gardens there, with huge concrete umbrellas and chairs. And likewise, the realty firms are offering penthouses with a garden, swimming pool, and so many other alluring facilities. A South Delhi-based realtor Anil Makhijani of Mak Realtors says that

Affluent people, like foreign diplomats, officials of MNCs, and others, are always on the lookout for such houses where they can get a roof garden as well. Realtors say a nice terrace garden can only be developed in a house built on an area of 325 sq yards and above. Many people buy a second floor with roof rights as a terrace garden is a great place to host small parties.

“It’s great to have one as it gives such a feeling of space,” says Rajni Gulati, talking about her terrace garden in DLF. A gardening enthusiast, Rajni says when they shifted here from England four years ago, they decided at once that they would develop a nice terrace garden atop their house. “And, now, prospective tenants always grab our second floor as it gives them the terrace rights. They pay us more money.”

Rajni is among the many metropolis-dwellers who long to tend to a green patch in their house where a cup of tea can be served in the morning sun, or a small barbecue under the night sky for friends.

Realty experts say the lack of ground space for a garden hasn’t been a deterrent to garden lovers. Fact of the matter is, the ground floor space isn’t even the preferred choice nowadays, because a green patch at ground level has its share of disadvantages - the constant sound of traffic, the swirl of dust, and only occasional sunlight as it is blocked out by the surrounding tall structures.

Sunil Jindal, CEO of SVP group, says even they never thought their penthouse apartments in their Gulmohar Greens project in Mohannagar would have so many buyers. “Even in these times of a massive slowdown, there were buyers for our penthouses,” says Sunil.

The story repeats itself even in the case of other realty firms like Omaxe, Supertech, Assotech, etc. R K Arora, Suprtech group’s MD, says they are providing a small pool and garden on their terrace-garden flats. A top-level executive working for a foreign liquor company says earlier he was living in terrace flat with roof garden on Hailey Road. After getting accustomed to that kind of living, which also lent a great view of the city, he decided to purchase a penthouse built by a known builder.

Vidur Bharadwaj, an architect at Design and Development, suggests utilizing as much waste material in an innovative way to do up the flooring, and seating arrangements for a terrace garden as possible. The look for a terrace garden is along contemporary sleek lines.

“The ethnic look is out,” says Minesh Parikh, a landscapist with Landscape Designs, and suggests dry gardens like the ones in Japan, focusing on sculpted plants, figurines and pavements. Water features like cascading water walls that cost a couple of lakh rupees for 1ft x 20ft, or bubblers for Rs 20,000-30,000 too are preferred. Diffused or mood lighting is usually recommended for terrace gardens, as

Often, a terrace garden is an extension of a living space. “Highly personal terrace gardens see water bodies, chimes and birdbaths, and gardens meant for gatherings have makeshift bars and pavilions,” observes Parikh.