A 3000-sq-ft apartment in Usha Kiran building on Carmichael Road will go under the hammer this week as its owner Citibank opens bids received for the sixth floor apartment. The four-bedroom apartment comes with two parking lots and servant quarters and has a base price of Rs 70,000/sq ft. The international bank is expected to open sealed offers received for the apartment this week. The 25-storey building was Asias tallest tower at the time of its construction in 1961. In March this year,a similar apartment in Usha Kiran owned by Pirojsha Godrej,executive director of Godrej Properties,was sold for Rs 23 crore. Two years ago,a fourth-floor apartment owned by Nirmal Zaveri of Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri in the building was sold at a record price of Rs 90,000 per sq ft. Besides Godrej,the building has been home to Dhirubhai Ambanis joint family before they shifted to Sea Wind in Cuffe Parade. Real estate consultant Ashok Narang said all multinational companies currently prefer to lease properties rather than stick to the ownership model. Since globally leasing has become the norm,most are looking at disposing their properties to consolidate their financial position. They get fantastic returns through sale of their properties which is often more than what they get from their core businesses, said Narang,adding that the Usha Kiran apartment was bought by a former Citibank chairman almost two decades ago. With most banks and other companies moving to the suburbs,cashing in on the capital value of the South Mumbai properties works out better for these firms, he said. Citibank,which owns a slew of prime properties in South Mumbai,had in 2007 sold a four-bedroom pad in Nariman Points NCPA apartments at Rs 97,800 per sq ft making it the country costliest residential deal. The record was broken by another property of Citibank itself at Malabar Hills Palazzo building. In 2008,actor-politician Vinod Khanna quoted an eye-popping bid of Rs 1.25 lakh per sq ft for a sea-facing apartment here,but the deal fell through a couple of months later. Property analysts say the international bank is soon expected to put the 2,500 sq ft Palazzo property up for sale too. Other firms looking to cash in on their real estate assets in South Mumbai include Hindustan Unilever which has put its Worli seaface Gulita building spread over 40,500 sq ft for sale. The BMC leasehold property has been subleased by the countrys largest FMCG company since 1965 and has served as its corporate training centre. The company is now planning to sell both its Worli property and its corporate headquarters at Churchgate and shift to its new office at Andheri. Similarly,in the first week of October,Standard Chartered Bank and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) will auction their five-storey building Bishopgate in Breach Candy. The building with 12 apartments on a half-acre plot has a reserve price of Rs 70,000 per sq ft.
