DMart's Radhakishan Damani buys Malabar Hill house in one of the costliest real estate deals in Mumbai

Radhakishan Damani is the eighth richest Indian, according to the Hurun India Rich List 2021.

In one of the biggest property deals in Mumbai, DMart founder Radhakishan Damani and his brother Gopikishan Damani bought a Rs 1,001-crore independent house in Mumbai’s posh Malabar Hill area.

According to local brokers, the registration took place on March 31, the last day of the reduced 3% stamp duty on housing units in Maharashtra. On August 26, 2020, the Maharashtra government had announced a temporary reduction in stamp duty on housing units, from 5% to 2%, until December 31, 2020, to boost the stagnant real estate market, hit doubly hard by COVID-19. The stamp duty from January 1, 2021, until March 31, 2021, was 3%. The Maharashtra government on March 31 said it would not extend the stamp duty waiver on property registrations and kept the Ready Reckoner Rates unchanged for the financial year 2021-22.

The Damani brothers paid Rs 30 crore in stamp duty (at the rate of 3%) for the 5,752 square metre (sq. m) property. The per square foot (sq. ft) rate for this property works out to be around Rs 1.6 lakh per sq. ft, which is unprecedented, brokers said, adding that the built-up area for this property is around 60,000 sq. ft.

One sq. m. is about 10.76 sq. ft.

The property has been bought from Purachand Roychand & Sons, Pareshchand Roychand & Sons, Premchand Roychand & Sons.

(This reporter has emailed the Damani brothers; and will update the story with their comment.)

According to the Hurun India Rich List 2021, Radhakishan Damani is the eighth richest Indian, with a net worth of $14.5 billion.

In 2020, Damani had bought a 8.8-acre parcel close to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park from CCI Projects for over Rs 500 crore.

According to Ritesh Mehta, Senior Director and Head - West India, Residential Services, JLL India, this is perhaps the largest deal in terms of per sq ft as well as absolute value after several years. “What is important is that this has been sealed during COVID-19 and on the last date of the stamp duty waiver,” he added.

Pecking order

The last deal of this magnitude was perhaps the property bought by the owner of biotech major Serum Institute of India’s Cyrus Poonawalla, chairman of the Poonawalla Group, back in 2015. Poonawalla purchased the iconic Lincoln House for Rs 750 crore in the posh Breach Candy area. The deal was signed between the Poonawalla family and the US Consulate, the then owners of Lincoln House. The Lincoln House, originally known as the Wankaner House, was owned by the Maharaja of Wankaner, a princely state near Rajkot in Gujarat and is spread over 2 acres with a built-up area of 50,000 sq. ft.

In yet another high-profile deal the same year, industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla had paid Rs 425 crore for Jatia House in the plush Malabar Hill area. Jatia House has a built-up area of about 25,000 sq. ft.

Property deals during COVID-19 times

Several high-end residential transactions were concluded in December 2020 on account of the limited-time 2% stamp duty offer which expired on December 31.

These included two sea-facing apartments. The first was a 20th floor apartment bought by Bharat Serum & Vaccines’ Gautam Daftary on South Mumbai’s Carmichael Road for Rs 101 crore. The total area of the apartment is 6,366 sq. ft. The registration took place on December 24, 2020.

In another deal, the Motilal Oswal Family Trust bought two duplex apartments of size 6,800 sq. ft for Rs 101 crore in South Mumbai in a project called 33 South. These were registered on December 22, 2020, according to data available on Zapkey.com

Another luxury unit in the Oberoi 360 West project, located in Worli, was bought for Rs 52.5 crore by Abhay Ventures Private Ltd from Oasis Realty. The size of the unit is 699.56 sq. m. This was registered on December 30.
One more property in Oberoi 360 West was bought for Rs 62.75 crore by Abhay Ventures Private Ltd from Oasis Realty and registered on December 30 - this was bought by Chetan Jain and Heena Chetan Jain.

Industrialist Ravi Purushottam Agrawal and his wife bought three luxury apartments in Raheja Artesia, Worli, on the 36th floor. The cost of the apartments is Rs 76.5 crore, as per registration data.