People often get confused about how they will design their homes to embody an aesthetically pleasing environment and where they will find items of brands they desire.  

As is often the case, they end up having to spend hours travelling all around the city just to get their specifications right.

To give customers respite from the perennial woes, real estate company Shanta Holdings is launching Shanta Lifestyle aiming to cater to the rising interior design and home decor needs of Bangladeshi consumers searching for luxury and exclusivity.

"Our idea is simple, come to us, we have multiple brands for each category of products in multiple price ranges. It's a one-stop destination, to purchase everything from one location," said Dewan Muhammad Sajid Afzal, chief executive officer of Shanta Lifestyle.

Initially, Shanta Lifestyle will be launched by making use of a 25,000 square feet showroom in the capital's Tejgaon on June 17.

It wants to provide customers with kitchen solutions, sanitaryware, home automation and lighting, ceiling, wall and floor materials from around the world to introduce a new era of sophisticated interior designs and products in Bangladesh.

"If you look at the consumer's journey -- for tiles and sanitaryware they go to Hatirpool area, for lighting they go to either Paltan or the Stadium Market, for furniture they go to China or Europe and for curtains they go to Elephant Road," said Afzal.

"They get confused as there is no way to find cabinet and kitchen solutions," he added.

Customers literally go all over the place in Dhaka city just to make one home. And in Dhaka, with so much traffic and chaos, it becomes very difficult, he said.

Asked why Shanta embarked on this new venture, he said Shanta Holdings sets the standard in terms of projects it takes up, be it commercial or residential buildings, and in terms of living standards it gives to customers.

And for the last 30 years it has been successfully doing that, said Afzal, who has a master's degree in innovation, strategy and entrepreneurship from the Grenoble Ecole de Management, a French graduate business school.

"However, during the process, we have realised that our customers not just appreciate our buildings, they wanted us to invest in their interiors as well," he said.

"And that is a bigger challenge. Making a building is tedious as it is, but when we work on the interior, it comprises a thousand different elements," he added.

According to him, setting standards in interiors is very difficult for two reasons.

"One is, of course, finding the best materials and the other is the best people to install these," he said.

And over the years, the Bangladeshi mindset has evolved in terms of design, brand and product preferences as people now want modern, minimalistic and beautiful homes and they are willing to invest to get it.

According to Shanta's estimate, people are now spending as much as 25 per cent of the value of their properties on the interiors and that is a big amount.

There are a lot of components related to the interior and people are being very selective and focused on what they want. They want their house to be perfect. And for that, the market is ready now.

For that, the company has built up expert teams of architects, interior designers, sales advisers and warehousing and supply chain solutions providers and started making imports.

Shanta Lifestyle is set to be launched this month but one of its teams has been working for the last three year, spending a substantial amount of time and manpower trying to understand customers' needs.

"And customisation is one of the biggest needs our consumers have. Each home is different, each person's perception on how their house should look is different. And that is where our customisation comes in," said Afzal.

"A customer can come into our showroom, look at our furniture and if they say they want to change the fabric, we can do that and we can do any addition and subtraction the customer wants. Any type of customisation that customers want, we can give that," he said.

He said when they identified that customisation was a big need, they went to look for brands that offer customisation. "We found some amazing Italian brands such as Molteni & C, Natuzzi Italia, Cattelan Italia," he said.

Shanta Lifestyle's inhouse teams of architects and interior designers help customers choose and select the products they want. At the same time, it has partnered with local architects and interior designers as well.

"When it comes to the interior itself, before we start with the interior, we sit down with the client. We ask them about their vision and their needs and we decide what to give them based on their needs," said Afzal.

He said they were putting immense importance on sustainability and environment friendly products.

"We ensure that brands are using sustainable materials. As we are working with Italian brands, Europe is all about sustainability, recycling and giving products that are eco-friendly and environment friendly," he said.

On its target customers, he said the brand wants to cater to everyone.

"Our showroom is open for everyone irrespective of their purchasing capacity -- that is the vision of our leader Khondoker Monir Uddin, the managing director of Shanta Holdings," he said.

Citing a research of US-based global management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group, he said almost 3 million people in Bangladesh would be categorised in the middle income and affluent groups by 2027.

"Some 25 to 30 districts will become urban. We want to target this population," he said.

About the company's plans, he said they seek to go for aggressive expansion.

"So, we have an aggressive plan. Our key target is to expand beyond Dhaka city in just one year, and we want to cover all divisional cities in the next two years. Eventually we will go to these 25 to 30 districts," said Afzal.

For this, it is committed to invest Tk 100 crore in the next four to five years.

"Our long-term vision is to manufacture locally, the brand we are connecting with has the aspiration and the potential to manufacture products locally. We want to focus on that. So that, the products become affordable for the middle class, reaching far beyond consumers in Dhaka," he said.