On most Friday evenings, Senthil Kumar Hariram, 40, adopts a version of the life that he has consciously built as a response to the one he was living. “I live and work in Bengaluru. The pace is constant, the noise never switches off, and over time, you start functioning more on momentum than intention,” says the founder of FTA Global, a search engineering company.
He realised he needed a space to recalibrate, not necessarily escape. “I didn’t want a vacation spot. I wanted a different way of living for a few days every week, something that changes how I exist,” he says, explaining why he invested in a second home in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, where he spends weekends farming.
Second homes are increasingly being used to reconstruct ways of living that feel lost in urban life. “I try to spend almost every weekend there unless work commitments require me to stay back. It has become a regular part of my routine rather than an occasional getaway. The consistency is what makes the experience meaningful because it gives me dedicated time to disconnect from the pace of city life and reconnect with nature.”
The time there, however, hasn’t made him want to shift fully to that way of life. “I enjoy the balance that both worlds offer. Bengaluru is where I build the business, work with my team, and pursue my professional ambitions, while Vellore gives me the space to slow down and recharge. I don’t see them as competing lifestyles but as complementary ones. Spending time at my second home has certainly made me value a simpler way of living, but it hasn’t made me want to leave entrepreneurship behind. Instead, it has helped me become more intentional about how I approach work and life,” he says.
“We’re seeing second homes bought less like a portfolio line-item and more like a ‘different pace of life’ kept on standby,” says Chandresh Vithalani, director of Mumbai-based Palladian Partners Advisory. “It’s where people try out quieter routines, hybrid work, weekend farming, or a more intentional way of raising children, because the city does not allow for those experiments,” he says, pointing out that these homes function as testing grounds for alternate lifestyles rather than passive investments.
“Buyers are increasingly considering how a home fits into their lives, not just their portfolios,” agrees Rishi Raj, in his 50s, CEO of Conscient Infrastructure, a real estate company with operations in Delhi and Goa. He sees it most clearly in North Goa pockets like Assagao and Siolim where time in a second home becomes “a way to test new ways of living—blending work, family, wellness, and community—while remaining connected to urban life.”
This shift is reflected in Knight Frank’s The Wealth Report 2025, which notes that 32% of India’s ultra-high-net-worth individuals are either planning to acquire or already own second homes. The demand for second homes is disproportionately high in hills and coastal regions, suggesting that environmental and experiential factors are central to decision-making.
Geographically, the market skews west: Alibaug, Lonavala, Karjat and Goa account for nearly half of India’s second-home demand, followed by northern hill destinations like Kasauli, Shimla and Rishikesh, and southern retreats such as Kodagu (Coorg) and Nandi Hills—all united by accessibility from Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. New infrastructure, from the Atal Setu bridge to the Navi Mumbai airport and regional expressways, is compressing travel time.
Distance from the primary residence remains the first filter—the India Sotheby’s 2025 Luxury Residential Sentiment Survey found 55% of HNIs (high net-worth individuals) prefer second homes within four hours of their main residence. Beyond drive time, buyers weigh healthcare access, road quality and water availability. The wish list has moved beyond a pool and a view: weekend farming, wellness routines, nature trails and hospitality tie-ups to earn rental income when owners are away.
“The idea is to create second homes not as dormant assets but as spaces for alternate living,” says Jimmy Mistry, 55, chairman and managing director of the Mumbai-based real estate business Della Group. Developers are integrating hospitality, wellness and community into such projects so that “owners could live in their second homes as first homes, rather than visit them occasionally.”
For Apeksha Niranjan, 42, Bharatnatyam artist and choreographer, the second home is not a lifestyle upgrade but a cultural and emotional return. “A second home is our dream home that we do not think of only buying and selling,” she says, deliberately rejecting the language of investment that typically surrounds such decisions. “In our childhood, we used to play without shoes. We would take hints from nature to understand seasons and rhythms. Today, that tactile connection to soil and environment is very rare,” she reflects, identifying a gap that her second home attempts to fill.
Niranjan lives in Navi Mumbai, and her second home is in Jambhulpada in Raigad district. “I love spending time in nature there —planting trees, taking care of the garden and breathing the pollution-free air. Although some final work is still in progress, I have made a beautiful dance studio where I can practice and create dance. This is more than a second home for me. It gives me mental peace and relaxation, allowing me to take a break from the day-to-day routine and reconnect with nature and myself,” she adds.
Once the house is complete, she plans to take her students there. “I want them to experience a gurukul-like environment where learning is immersive, unstructured, and rooted in presence.”
For Narinder Paul Kathuria, in his 60s, director at Flash Electronics, a Delhi-headquartered auto components manufacturer, his second home serves a specific need. “Living in Delhi, where pollution is a major issue for most of the year, I was looking for a place where I could step away from that environment,” he says, framing his decision through the lens of necessity rather than luxury.
His second home is in Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh, a five-to-six-hour drive from Delhi. “It had to be something that I could access without over-planning,” he explains. “When everyday living itself becomes difficult, you start looking at things differently—clean air and open space stop being luxuries and start becoming necessities.”
This is echoed by Suresh Sharma, managing director of Noida-based Advant IT Parks, whose second home is also in Himachal Pradesh. “You don’t want something that feels far removed from your life; you want a place you can go to whenever you need to reset, without turning it into a logistical exercise.”
“There is a clear shift in mindset,” says Amar Kapoor, CEO, Terra Grande, the luxury second-home vertical of Delhi-NCR developer Eldeco Group with villa projects in the Kasauli hills, contextualising these individual decisions within a broader behavioural transformation. “Earlier, people associated breaks with international travel, planning months in advance, dealing with visas, uncertainty. Now that mindset has changed significantly. People want ease. They want to be able to just pack their bags and go to a place that is theirs, without having to go through multiple processes every time.”
Most of his buyers are in the 45-55 age group. “At that stage, they are not trying to escape, but reshape their lives in a way that feels more balanced and controlled,” he says, highlighting how financial stability often leads to lifestyle experimentation. Most buyers ask detailed questions about water availability and infrastructure, which shows that their priorities are grounded in everyday realities.
Second homes are becoming spaces of experimentation for individuals who want to experience alternate rhythms without completely stepping away from their primary lives; spaces where work coexists with stillness, and where time is not always measured in output.
Anjali Kochhar is an independent journalist and writer based in Mumbai.