To paraphrase former UK prime minister Harold Wilson, a week is a long time for Mumbai’s ultra-rich to buy properties of their choice, irrespective of whatever it takes.
That is precisely what is happening in India’s commercial capital. With only a few days less to go before the deadline for the stamp duty cut ends in Maharashtra, the super-rich are rushing to close high-end deals in Mumbai.
If a second phase of the pandemic is threatening to engulf India, it is hardly showing on the city’s affluent real estate radar.
Take Ravi Purushottam Agrawal, an industrialist, who has bought three luxury apartments in Raheja Artesia, Worli, on the 36th floor along with his wife. The cost of the apartment is Rs 76.5 crore, registration data accessed by Zapkey.com said.
The deal registered on March 2, 2021 includes an apartment valued at Rs 27.6 crore, in a carpet area of 3,706 sq ft with four parking slots. The stamp duty paid for this unit is Rs 55.2 lakh.
The second apartment on the same floor is, if anything, even better. At Rs 27.6 crore and a carpet area of 3,748 sq ft, it comes with four parking lots. A stamp duty of Rs 55.2 lakh was paid for the second unit, as per the registration documents.
The third apartment with a carpeted area of 2,964 sq ft has been bought for Rs 21.2 crore. It came with a stamp duty of Rs 42.5 lakh.
The stamp duty for all three apartments was paid in December 2020 when the prevailing was two percent. The deal was registered in March.
Ritesh A Mehta, Senior Director & Head – West India, Residential Services, JLL India, says that a reduction of two percent to three percent is a big amount for high-value apartments.
A query sent to Ravi Purushottam Agrawal went unanswered.
In another deal registered on March 24, Dheeraj Relli, MD and CEO of HDFC Securities, has bought a 12thfloor apartment valued at Rs 30.31 crore in the same project. The carpet area of the unit is 3,702 sq ft and comes with three car parks. In this case, the stamp duty paid stood at Rs 90.95 lakh, as per registration documents accessed by Zapkey.com
According to Mehta, “There is traction in the Worli project, primarily because it is a Tier 1 ready-to-move-in apartment with ready amenities and an occupation certificate.”
In Mumbai, most luxury projects in the price range of Rs 30 crore to Rs 50 crore are located in standalone buildings that have an address. Many of these are in South Mumbai locations such as Napean Sea Road, Malabar Hill, Walkeshwar, Breach Candy, or are sea facing. “These are generally redeveloped old buildings that offer no amenities, only an address,” he says, dryly.
Several transactions worth Rs 25 crore to Rs 50 crore were registered in the Mumbai market since the stamp duty cut was announced in August 2020, clearly indicating that there is appetite for the high-value segment even in these troubled times.
On August 26, the Maharashtra government decided to temporarily reduce stamp duty on housing units from five percent to two percent 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 will be three percent.
Entrepreneur, financial advisor, and venture capitalist Arihant Patni, has also bought a unit valued at Rs 28.8 crore in Raheja Artesia. It comes with three car parks. He paid a stamp duty of Rs 86 lakh on the deal, which was registered on February 23, as per documents shared by Zapkey.com.
K Raheja Corp’s Artesia is an iconic stand-alone 45-storey tower with exemplary views of the Arabian Sea and the Bandra-Worli Sea Link. Brokers put the per sq. ft rate of apartments in Raheja Artesia at around Rs 70,000, with the average rentals kissing the Rs 7.5-lakh per-month mark.
In December, HDFC vice-chairman and CEO Keki Mistry, bought an ultra-luxury apartment in Mumbai worth Rs 41.23 crore, the latest high-value residential deal in India’s financial capital as home buyers scrambled to register properties before the deadline of the recent stamp duty cut expires by the end of March.
It was registered on November 18, local brokers said. The property’s carpet area is 7,390 sq ft and it is located on the 35th floor, they said, adding it has as many as eight parking lots.
The property attracted a stamp duty of Rs 95.6 lakh, they said. The project is funded by HDFC, according to the project’s website. The reduction of stamp duty, it appears, is a model that other Tier 1 cities could do well to emulate.