Over $1.5 billion of land deals transacted in MMR in 2023 so far

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) has seen property transactions worth over $1.5 billion in 2023 so far, the highest across the country as large real estate developers are readying to make launches to meet the anticipated demand.

Data on property sales in Mumbai, Thane, Raigad and Palghar districts were provided to businessline by analytics and intelligence platform CRE Matrix.

Mumbai accounted for mosttransactions in terms of value with deals worth ₹7,956 crore being closed in the year so far. Thane district had over three times the number of deals as Mumbai in terms of numbers, but the transacted value was much lower at ₹2,778 crore. Raigad district saw transactions worth ₹265 crore while in Palghar the value of the transactions were just over ₹92 crore.

Big transactions

One of the biggest transactions this year was Sumitomo’s subsidiary buying a 22-acre land parcel from Bombay Dyeing, the first phase of which has been transacted at ₹4,674 crore this month. In April, Prestige Estates Projects bought a property in central Mumbai for ₹704 crore. In June, the Solitaire Group acquired a 20-acre land parcel in Andheri for ₹500 crore. In May, Godrej Properties had acquired a 7-acre land parcel in Bhandup for ₹264 crore.

Being an island city, space has always been at a premium in Mumbai. Redevelopment projects and monetisation of land holdings by industrial houses, who have held land or property over several decades, are freeing up land within the city limits for developers. Though the property rates are high, realtors are willing to pay top dollar for them as they can construct premium and luxury houses for the well-heeled customers.

Outside the city limits but within MMR is Thane, which is becoming a focus of construction activity as developers anticipate better connectivity with the metro expected to become operational there soon.

About 60-odd deals were transacted in Thane in this year so far. In January, Mukand Ltd sold a 42-acre land to a digital infrastructure company for ₹727 crore. In June, Kansai Nerolac Paints sold a 24-acre land to the Hiranandani Group for ₹671 crore while in February, Oberoi Realty acquired an 8-acre land parcel from Blue Star for ₹192 crore. More recently, this month a 5-acre land parcel was transacted for ₹109 crore.

Raigad saw over 80 transactions, but the deal sizes have been smaller with the largest being for ₹20 crore, in which Riddhi Siddhi Developers acquired a small piece of land from an individual. Developers, hoteliers, educational institutions and even actors have been buying properties in the district.

Industry data usually show MMR accounts for half of the property market in India, in terms of value. Over the last couple of years it has also led in terms of sales and launches. At the moment, supply is lagging demand but once all these deals get translated into projects on the ground, analysts expect an oversupply situation.