Rekha Jhunjhunwala buys next-door building for Rs 118 cr to protect home's sea view

File photo of Rakesh Jhunjhunwala with his wife Rekha.

Rekha Jhunjhunwala, widow of the late billionaire stock investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, has purchased almost all the units in a building to ward off any obstruction to the vista of the Arabian Sea from her Malabar Hill home.

Jhunjhunwala's RARE Villa residence sits just behind sea-facing Rockside CHS, which was up for a redevelopment. Rockside and six more buildings in Walkeshwar were scheduled for redevelopment under a cluster scheme. Prominent developer Shapoorji Pallonji had submitted a commercial proposal through which each homeowner would get an additional carpet area of almost 50 percent in the redeveloped format.

Sensing that the redevelopment could potentially restrict the prime sea-view from RARE Villa, Jhunjhunwala went about acquiring each and every unit of the old building. Registration documents sourced through Zapkey show that Jhunjhunwala, through multiple entities, purchased nine  apartments for Rs 118 crore since November 2023. Market sources indicate that there is more with the family having actually purchased 19 of the 24 apartments in the building.

The sea-facing Walkeshwar is undergoing a wave of redevelopment as developers look to cater to the uber-rich in South Mumbai. Lodha Malabar set that market on fire with record transactions in the last 18 months. Industrialist JP Taparia of Famy Care did India’s most expensive apartment deal by purchasing a triplex for INR 369 crore.

Brokers say Shapoorji Pallonji has paused on the cluster redevelopment strategy as it awaits clarity on the status of Rockside CHS under its latest majority owner.