Property transactions dull in April

Prasanna Upadhyay

Mumbai, May 15: THE real estate transactions in Mumbai have been lacklustre in April 2001, with residential deals accounting for a majority of the transactions for the month.

The biggest deal during the month, valued at Rs 72.5 crore, was by the Chennai-based Apple Credit Corporation Ltd. The deal was for a plot at the Bandra-Kurla complex measuring 6041 sqmt and three floors in the same complex measuring a total of 55,793 sq ft. The properties belonged to Apple Finance Ltd, based in Mumbai.

Hindustan Spinning and Weaving Mills Ltd was active this month and entered into 11 deals for sale of its flats to General Insurance Corporation Ltd in April. All the flats are located at Kalpataru Heights near Mumbai Central were sold for sums ranging from over Rs 99 lakh to Rs 2.2 crore each.

Reliance also entered the residential deals and purchased five flats - four at Bandra and one at Bhulabhai Desai Road. The flat at Bhulabhai Desai Road was owned by Vazir Tyabji and 12 others and cost Rs 3.80 crore. The other flats at Bandra were bought from Makani Builders and Developers for Rs 1.15 crore each.
Another big corporate, Mahindra and Mahindra sold a flat at Mahindra Heights at Tardeo for Rs 2.04 crore.

The month has not seen any pick up in the buying and selling despite experts predicting that there would be a 10 to 15 per cent increase in real estate prices, at the beginning of this month.

The year began on a promising note but the last couple of months has seen a marginal fall in the prices. A 10 per cent fall in property prices is expected for the rest of this year, according to property experts.

Experts have blamed the slowdown in April to be the effect of the stock market crash. According to reports published by property experts, following the slowdown in the IT sector in the US, Indian IT companies have deferred investments which has also resulted in fall in the prices. Experts added that residential buying will dominate the dealings for the next couple of months, largely for individual use.