He had spent three days looking at villas in Goa. By the fourth day, they were all beginning to look the same.
We met someone yesterday who has been visiting Goa every year since 2010. For years, he had carried one dream with him: to someday own a home here. This trip was different. He was finally ready to turn that dream into reality.
For the past three days, he had been visiting projects across the neighbourhood. Most offered a familiar design language, with the differences coming down to the number of bedrooms, square footage and price.
Then, on his last day in Goa, just before leaving for the airport, he visited our project. He looked at the raw concrete structures and was intrigued. It was unlike anything he had seen during the previous three days.
He turned to the broker and asked, “Why didn’t you bring me here first?”
The broker said: “Most people who come looking for villas in Goa want the Indo-Portuguese style. I thought you would want to see the same.”
And honestly, we could understand his reasoning. When people invest in property, familiarity offers comfort. We tend to gravitate towards what we have seen before.
But there is another side to this conversation, particularly when a home is intended for holiday rentals.
The home a person wants to own isn't always the home a traveller wants to experience.
Think about why people book a treehouse in the woods, a home perched on a cliff, or a secluded retreat surrounded by nature. They aren't simply looking for a place to sleep. They're looking for something their everyday surroundings cannot offer them.
A sense of escape. A different way of living. An experience they will remember long after the holiday is over and the architecture is often a big part of that experience.
A brutalist tropical home, with its raw concrete, sculptural forms and relationship with the landscape, may not appeal to everyone. But to a certain kind of traveller, someone who has seen the world, appreciates architecture and seeks out distinctive places, that difference is precisely the attraction.
This is something worth considering when building homes in a destination like Goa.
If every project is designed to appeal to the widest possible audience, how many will actually stand apart when a traveller begins searching for a place to stay?
