K Raheja Corp acquires 1.5-acre land in Mumbai's Sion for Rs 120 crore

K Raheja Corp acquires 1.5-acre land in Mumbai’s Sion for Rs 120 crore

Realty developer K Raheja Corp has acquired an over 1.5-acre land parcel in central Mumbai’s Sion locality from a public charitable trust K J Somaiya Trust for over Rs 120 crore.

An additional 0.4-acre land parcel adjoining this plot will also be acquired by the developer through a separate transaction later, as per the terms agreed upon between both the parties. With the second tranche of the deal, K Raheja Corp will own nearly 2 acres of land in this location.

The developer has acquired the land parcel through one of its affiliated companies Feat Properties that has paid stamp duty worth Rs 7.24 crore at the time of registration of the deal recently.

The land parcel is part of a larger plot measuring 11.5 acres, which was part of Wadia Mahal property, was transferred to K J Somaiya Trust through a conveyance in 1962. While the land parcel falls under the salt pan division, there are no orders of any authority restricting the development of the property.

The trust has already secured the Charity Commissioner’s permission as per the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act, 1950 for the transfer in April this year. No other approval from any government authority is needed for the same and there is also no restriction on the transfer of the said property, showed the copy of agreement accessed through Indextap.com.

In February, the trust had invited bids to sell freehold land measuring 1.90 acres, which is part of a larger plot in Sion. Following this, a total of four entities including K Raheja Corp had shown interest in acquiring the plot by submitting their bids.

K Raheja Corp emerged as the highest bidder after it increased the offer price in the second stage of the process. The developer and the trust entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on March 10 after which the permission from the Charity Commissioner was secured in April.

While the deal for the 1.5-acre land parcel has been concluded now, a separate transaction for an additional 0.4-acre plot will be executed later.

ET’s separate email queries to K Raheja Corp and KJ Somaiya Trust remained unanswered until the time of going to press.

It could not be ascertained if the company is planning to develop a commercial or residential project on this newly acquired land parcel.

In July, ET had reported that Adani Group is set to acquire K Raheja Corp’s two land parcels spread over 92 acres in Navi Mumbai’s Airoli locality for around Rs 1,500 crore. The developer had earlier acquired both these land parcels adjacent to each other from US-based specialty chemicals company Cabot Corporation and Mafatlal Group company Standard Industries.

The developer had bought the 30-acre land parcel of Cabot Corporation for around Rs 200 crore in December 2015, while Standard Industries’ plot spread over 62 acres was acquired much later.

The number of land deals has surged in the last few quarters in the backdrop of recovery in most realty segments including residential, commercial, data centers and even warehousing. According to a CII-CBRE report, deals for around 700 acres worth $1.1 billion have been concluded across key Indian property markets in the first half of 2022. Given the higher number of deals and rising demand for land parcels has also resulted in rise in prices.