REALTY DEAL SPURS TURNAROUND HOPE

REALTY DEAL SPURS TURNAROUND HOPE
Kolkata
The Telegraph

A chunk of prime land in New Alipore has changed hands in a big-ticket deal at a time such deals are under the scanner across the state.

A 229-cottah plot next to BP Poddar Hospital, which once housed the factory of edible oils group Rasoi, has been sold to city-based real estate firm Ideal Group for Rs 85 crore, which works out to around Rs 37 lakh per cottah. The factory premises were lying idle since June 2002, when the company shifted operations to Banganagar, near Diamond Harbour.

“We will develop a high-end residential property there, in the shape of two high-rise towers designed by Hafeez Contractor,” said S.K. Himatsingka, the chairman of the Ideal Group. The realty firm is looking at around 200 apartments and hopes to break ground in January 2010.

The deal doesn’t scale a new city peak as there have been instances of land parcels being sold at a higher price but the realty lobby holds it as a pointer to a possible turnaround in the economy that has been going through a slump.

Emaar-MGF Land Pvt Ltd had made real estate history in Calcutta by quoting Rs 213 crore for a 6.24-acre plot (around Rs 34 crore an acre) on the Bypass. Later, LIC had surpassed that, quoting around Rs 55 crore per acre for a land parcel near Science City.

“Still, the Rasoi deal, at this juncture, could be one more hint that the market is bouncing back,” said a city-based property agent.