In realty rates, Lutyens’ Delhi beats NY, London hands down

There is no tennis court, no infinity pool, no Sub-Zero refrigerator or walk-in closet. The paint is chipped, the bathrooms are musty and the ceilings have water stains. The house may ultimately be torn down.

Yet when it went up for public auction, the winning bid was almost $29 million. And many neighbours consider that a bargain. One block away, a gracious if not quite Rockefeller-ready residence once leased by the Mexican ambassador is now reportedly on the market for more than $100 million. Other nearby houses are going for $40 million to $70 million.

“The price of the Mexican residence is $110 million,” said Jorge Roza de Oliveira, Portugal’s ambassador to India. “You can buy a home in New York and Miami and Lisbon and London and keep a lot of change for that much.”

Real estate prices in the heart of New Delhi, especially for the bungalows built nearly a century ago during the British Raj, are among the highest in the world.

Though India’s economy has cooled, the demand for property in elite areas remains so strong that even finding a house for sale is tricky: formal listings do not exist; prices usually circulate by word of mouth. Transactions often require some black money, or stacks of cash paid under the table to avoid taxes.

The buyers are often industrialists looking for a trophy property, a real estate Rolex. Or, real estate agents and

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