Mumbai realtors bullish

Mumbai realtors are riding high on the back of the record breaking sale of NTC's Mumbai Mills property at Lower Parel (above) and the next day's sale of 20 acres of Glaxo land at Vikhroli in North Mumbai for Rs230 crore.

"This is very good news," said Niranjan Hiranandani of Hiranandani Constructions (which bid Rs550 crore for the Mumbai Mills site), adding that prices will remain high as that part of the city lacked grade A commercial and retail buildings.

Chanakya Chakravarti, joint managing director of property consultancy Cushman & Wakefield, agreed: "The bid is likely to encourage landlords of strategically located properties to divest in an already buoyant market."

But he pointed out that the final sale figure of Rs702 crore could have been driven by the fact that the end use of the property was expected to be for retail and hospitality.

The sale has also raised expectations for NTC's Kohinoor Mill No 3 and Elphinstone Mills. While no one is willing to guess how much these mills might fetch, analysts expect that final bids will be high, as big national players are being seduced by the promise of rich pickings in Mumbai's thriving retail market.

The two mills have been valued at about Rs200 crore each.While DLF has stepped into the Mumbai market with the Parel purchase, fellow Delhi real estate major Parsvnath Builders is expected to bid heavily for these two properties. Parsvnath was the second highest bidder for the Lower Parel Bombay Mills site.

With about 13 new malls, offering a combined area of 5,335,000 square feet coming up by mid-2007, the retail market in the city is set to explode. Brands looking to expand in the city include Levi's, Lee, Mango, Marks & Spencer, L'Oreal, Maybelline, Swarovski, Cartier, Gautier, Swatch and Mont Blanc.

Emerging retail locations include Vashi in Navi Mumbai, Lower Parel and Worli in Central Mumbai, Powai, Malad, Kandibvili and Borivali in the western suburbs.

Among existing high street retail locations, Linking Road (Bandra) commands the highest per square feet price at Rs 160 per sft, while Kemp's Corner and Lokhandwala come close at Rs150 and 140/sft and Vashi clocks in at Rs120/sft.