Koshy Varghese can rattle off every architectural, natural and topographic feature of Bali, as if it were his home country. “The houses have a wooden elevation. The vegetation is lush and tropical. Water bodies and stone statues abound,” he tells you. Every detail on the country ? right down to the last lily ? is carefully marked on a blueprint that Varghese has drawn for a housing project his firm is building. No, the project isn’t coming up in Bali. Verghese’s project ? called Nusa Dua ? is currently under construction in Whitefield, on the outskirts of Bangalore. The colony of 28 row houses will be a slice of Bali in Bangalore.

Varghese, managing director of Value Designbuild, the builders of Nusa Dua, insists that Nusa Dua is a one-of-its-kind project in India. But though the Bali angle may be unique, theme-based housing is on every real estate builder’s agenda. The list of locally-made global showpieces is long. By next year, Venice, London and Wimbledon will be a part of Bangalore. The city-based Purvankara Builders has launched Purva Venezia in Yelahanka. The project offers features like canals with gondolas, arching bridges, a piazza and Venetian style landscaping marked by waterways with wooden footbridges.

Bangalore’s Venice will have an upmarket London locality as its neighbour. Located in Jalahalli, the Prestige group’s Kensington Gardens will have buildings with fluted columns, sloped roofs and gardens galore ? like its namesake in the West. “All the 419 apartments will face a garden,” says a spokesperson for Prestige.

Selling architectural fantasies is not exclusive to Bangalore, however. Gurgaon on the outskirts of New Delhi is set to get global with an Egyptian, Hawaiian and Spanish project slated for completion by 2008. The Delhi-based Omaxe Builder’s 10-acre apartment colony, The Nile, will bring alive ancient Egyptian civilisation in Gurgaon.

A few kilometres down the expressway from Gurgaon, Ansal Properties and Infrastructure Ltd (APIL) is rolling out a slice of Spain ? a 25-house colony called ? what else? ? Spanish Terraces. Gurgaon’s two-acres of Spain will have houses with pointed capes, wooden doors and Spanish-style gardens. “A Spanish theme will give an identity to the colony. It will stand out from the clutter of buildings being built across Gurgaon,” says Prateek Chatterjee, spokesperson, APIL.

As India’s housing industry booms, builders are innovating to sell. And theme-based housing is the newest marketing mantra. “Offering swimming pools, saunas and gymnasiums has become pass?. Everyone does it. Theme housing is the new strategy to attract eyeballs,” says V. Nagarajan, editor and publisher of the Chennai-based Indian Real Estate magazine.

Real estate is booming in India, says Nagarajan. “The real estate market in India is currently worth $12 billion. It is likely to grow to $15 billion - $20 billion in the next five years,” he says. Add to this foreign direct investment (FDI) and the entry of foreign companies like the Singapore-based Keppel and Dubai’s ETA Builders and the stage is set for some high-powered competition. “Builders are adopting new selling strategies to stand out in a competitive market,” adds Nagarajan.

Agrees Irfan Razack, chairman and managing director, the Prestige group, “Run-of-the-mill houses are a thing of the past. Builders are innovating to compete in a flourishing real estate market and to attract customers.”

For the well-heeled in India, the humble home has gone through a social metamorphosis. “A house has become a lifestyle statement. Buying a designer home is like buying a Ritu Beri creation,” says Amitabh Bhattacharya, vice-president, Omaxe Builders.

Theme-based houses are positioned to tap the new Indian buyer, who wants a residential address that matches his changing lifestyle and aspirations. APIL’s Chatterjee will vouch for that. “Most houses at Spanish Terraces were bought by socially well-networked people. It offers them an address that will look good on their visiting cards,” he says.

The new breed of globally-travelled professionals and returning non-resident Indians have added a spin to the housing market. “Indian consumers are familiar with the western way of living. They demand the same standards and settings back home,” says R. Tewari, chief executive officer of the Delhi-based Aerens group, builders of the Hawaiian-style Aloha project in Gurgaon.

Indeed, at Verghese’s Nusa Dua project, the Bali touch starts at the entrance, with an ornately carved Balinese gate. Then, there are the mandatory lily-filled ponds and cobbled stone walkways. “The houses will have sloping, tiled roofs. The natural setting will be tropical,” says Varghese.

The 2.5-acre sized Bali promises to be nothing short of the original. For maximum authenticity, a Singapore-based designer has been called in to landscape the plot. Stone statues will be imported from Bali. “The theme is even followed in the project name, logo and advertisements,” adds the managing director.

For buyers, money is a non-issue. “Theme housing projects cost up to 30 per cent more than regular constructions,” says Varghese.

Nobody is complaining. When Bangalore-based architect Jessy Jacob booked a house at Nusa Dua, its Rs 1 crore-plus cost was the last deterrent. “I didn’t want to live in a crummy apartment block. I bought a house that catered to my lifestyle needs,” she says.

Clearly, selling houses to high-end buyers is keeping the builders’ cerebral cells ticking over-time. But Gayatri Nayak, proprietor, Manipal Consultancy Services, a Bangalore-based real estate firm, feels that theme housing is not a winning marketing strategy. “A housing society’s theme plays a marginal role when consumers make a buying decision. A discerning consumer will not buy a badly-designed apartment only because it has an exotic name,” says Nayak.

She adds that as theme-based settings drive up project costs substantially, most discerning buyers are not willing to shell out a premium for superficial exclusivity. “A consumer would rather pay for more living space and amenities than for exclusive tiles imported from Europe,” she says. Nayak also adds that builders need to evaluate how well their themes will fit into Indian conditions.

Varghese, for one, argues that Bali fits hand-in-glove in Bangalore. “Like India, Bali has a Hindu influence. Like India, it has a tropical climate,” he says. Also, all the 28 row houses at the high-end Nusa Dua project are sold out. For Varghese, that makes Bali a winning bet.