Mumbai flat sold for Rs 27 crore

The residential property market may be in slow gear and home prices beyond the
reach of the common man, but freak sales of premium apartments at astronomical
prices continue to generate considerable interest.

In another rare deal,
a fourth floor apartment in Mumbai's oldest skyscraper, Usha Kiran at Altamount
Road, was sold at Rs 90,000 for a square foot. The seller, Nirmal Zaveri of
Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri, said that the 3,000 sq ft pad fetched him Rs 27
crore.

"The transaction took place about two-and-a-half months ago. The
buyer was a representative of IndiaBulls," said Zaveri. IndiaBulls executive
director Gagan Banga said the company had not purchased this flat under its
name, but there was a possibility that one of their senior executives may have
bought it.

Zaveri himself is on the verge of buying an apartment in the
upcoming Orbit Corporation's Villa Orb project at Nepean Sea Road — each unit
spread over 7,500 sq ft is selling between Rs 55,000 and Rs 65,000 a square
foot.

The 25-storey Usha Kiran is the first high rise to come up in the
city way back in the mid-1960s. The Godrejs and Ambanis once lived here. The
latest transaction in this building is being touted as the second highest for an
apartment in the country so far.

Last November, TOI was the first to
report on the country's largest-ever residential transaction on record — a
four-bedroom flat at NCPA Apartments at the Nariman Point end of Marine Drive
fetched a gravity-defying price of Rs 97,842 per square foot or Rs 34 crore.


The plush pad is located on the 7th floor (No 74) and was put up for
sale early by its owner, Citibank. The winning bidder was a UK-based NRI called
Kewalramani