Delhi’s most expensive realty deal revisited

Confidential 

Analyst report for Westend property

Asian Age Chronicles :  05 June 2014 14:12:55 IST
Real estate watchers are asking if Torrent's 2012 deal at Rs. 10 lakhs per sq yard is actually Delhi's most expensive property deal. Billionaire religious guru Gurpreet Singh Dhillon, whose family owns the Religare financial group pipped Torrent when they snapped up A-16 Westend Colony, a 1200 square yard plot main road plot on Rao Tularam Marg, for Rs 124 crores in a Delhi High Court transaction. A few days before that another Religare tycoon CMD Sunil Godhwani had bought another 1,200 square yard plot on Rao Tularam Marg, No. 1/16 Shanti Niketan, also through the Delhi High Court for Rs. 123 crores, but didn't complete the sale when his employers objected to his presuming to stay on the same street as them. 

Source: Realtynewsindia

1/16 Shanti Niketan property is now receiving offers for over Rs. 150 crores before the impending circle rate hike (which is expected to increase prices in New Delhi's tony super-A category colonies by 60%), but the owners are adamant on auctioning their property through the court at a reserve price of Rs.160 crores (the current court reserve price of Rs. 120 crores was set in Feb. 2013 when the market was subdued).

Analyst view:
Delhi's high end residential  areas like Westend Colony and Shanti Niketan are set to witness a feeding frenzy of buying interest once the new circle rates are notified, with a host of new buyers from BJP ruled states like Gujarat and Karnataka showing keen interest. 

Deals like those by Torrent's Mehta brothers or the 140 crore deal by another Ahmedabad tycoon Adani had reassured them that properties in Delhi's LBZ long selling for Rs. 5 lakhs/yard are worth well over Rs. 10 lakhs. But, the real price action has now shifted to Golf Links (Rs. 15 lakhs/sq.yrd) and the Rao Tularam Marg (14 lakhs/sq yard) where top industrialists are known to have discretely put their personal residences up for sale.

Background research
In 2011 industrialist Sandeep Jajodia, who is the head of sponge iron maker Monnet Ispat & Energy, bought a 2,000 sq yard bungalow no.1/26 Shanti Niketan for Rs.170 crore for his personal use from the Ghosh family. Informed sources close to the transactions say the liquidity constrained industrialist's other smaller property, the about 1200 sq yard residential plot No.1/17 Shanti Niketan may fetch Rs.160 crores in an all-cheque deal, which rumors caused the company's share price and volumes to spike when the news became known to insiders. Monnet Ispat's shares were trading around Rs.550 when Sandeep Jajodia bought his Rs.170 crore property in June 2011 and had continually declined to as low as Rs.53 in Jan 2014 but has recovered sharply to around Rs.120 on news of the rumored property sale and other developments finally commencing on Jajodia's 1/26 Shanti Niketan plot which was part financed by HDFC Bank. 

Monnet Ispat & Energy has alleged breach of trust by the coal ministry that cancelled the company's Rajgamar Dipside and Urtan North coal blocks for slow progress. In an exclusive interview with ET, Monnet Ispat CMD Sandeep Jajodia says fear psychosis has set in within the government resulting into 'illogical' decision-making and non-co-operation towards industrialists. 

"You cannot give coal mine to somebody, push him over the years and when thousands of crores have been invested in the end use project, cancel the mine for reason beyond the control of the allottee company." 

"Who will pay the loans taken by these companies that have in good faith invested thousands of crores."

Delhi’s most expensive realty deal ?