No takers for BKC plot

Rs 435 crore. That was the minimum reserve price set by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority for a 3,162-sq-mtr plot it wanted to auction. It didn’t get a single bid, reports Zeeshan Shaikh.

Rs 435 crore. That was the minimum reserve price set by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority for a 3,162-sq-mtr plot it wanted to auction. It didn’t get a single bid.

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“We haven’t got a single bid for this plot. This is basically due to the recession in real estate,” MMRDA spokesperson Dilip Kawathkar said. In January, MMRDA decided to put up the plot – in the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) – for auction, setting Rs 435 crore as the starting bid.

A leading developer, requesting anonymity, said the reserve price was the deterrent.

“The government accuses us of inflating prices, then does the same when selling us the land,” he said, pointing out that not enough as been done to develop infrastructure at BKC.

Indicating the extent of the slump in Mumbai’s realty market is the fact that MMRDA’s last commercial (open to all categories of developers) auction of BKC land was in March 2008, when it put five plots totalling 22,560 sq mtr on the block.

Its last auction of reserved plots (open only to bidders with a history in that sector, say, education or healthcare) in BKC was in August 2008, when a 5,900-sq-mtr plot went for Rs 92 crore.

To address the slowdown, MMRDA is now looking at newer financial models, including the construction of standalone “iconic buildings” on the remaining BKC land, then leasing them out.

The 3,162.47-sq-mtr plot, near the VSNL building in BKC’s G Block, had a permissible built-up area of 14,500 sq mtr. Five developers — HDIL, Orbit Shelter, Vinita Wadhwa, Matoshree Group and Oberoi Builders — attended the pre-bid meeting.

None sent in a bid by Wednesday, the last day for submission.

The 178-hectare BKC, built on marshland at Bandra (East), is one of the most expensive pockets of real estate in the city. And G Block is its most desirable address, housing the likes of Citibank, Nabard, ICICI Bank and the Bharat Diamond Bourse.

G Block became even more desirable after the government in May 2009, doubled its floor space index from 2 to 4, effectively doubling the area available for developers to build.