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