BKC’s biggest property deal took place more than a decade ago, in November 2017. It was also the last in as much time: MMRDA had leased a 16,500 sq m land parcel to Wadhwa Builders for Rs 831 crore. The authority hasn’t since been able to lease properties, chiefly because of a 2016 court ruling sanctioning fresh construction across the metropolitan until a solution was arrived at to deal with the city’s waste disposal problem.
The last attempted property auction was in March-April 2016 for a 12,486 sq m plot, but the land never went under the hammer.
A lot of properties do, nevertheless, exchange hands. The present rental in the area is Rs 225-250 per sq ft, a dip from Rs 300 per square foot a decade ago, thanks to the ‘invisible hand’ guiding market forces. This has helped it drub SoBo — with its unreal realty prices — to become the most sought-after business district.
To boot, the office space here is going to expand by 0.7 million square foot.
Anuj Puri, chairman, Anarock Property Consultants, said that BKC was conceived as a business district to decongest South Mumbai, but it recently saw a spike in luxury residential developments, too, convenient for senior management and CEOs who want to live close to the office. “With buzzing real estate and infrastructure upgrades, like the bullet train, IFC, Metro and so on, BKC is likely to remain Mumbai’s hub,” said Puri.
It is no surprise BKC is helping jack up property prices in neighbourhoods around it, like Kalanagar to Kalina, where projects are addressed ‘upper BKC’. “Being close to BKC helps a lot many builders,” said Prakash Rohira of Karma Realtors.
Karan Singh Sodi, managing director, Mumbai JLL, said BKC currently has the largest standing stock of Grade A office space in Mumbai and infrastructure development will create further demand.
