After a long slumber, Bangalore’s real estate market is ticking with big-bracket property deals. Corporates appear to be leading this trend of buying land and property assets from developers, who may be looking at such divestments to generate more liquidity into the system.
At least three deals in the Bangalore landscape have been struck or are in advanced stages of closure.
Realty major DLF is understood to have sold a 15-acre patch of land in Whitefield, one of Bangalore’s IT suburb in the east, to NetApp India, the arm of US-based data storage equipment maker NetApp Inc, in a deal valued at Rs 120 crore, said a source familiar with the transaction.
Prestige Group has, through an SPV, sold 60,000 sq feet prime property on Brunton Road in downtown Bangalore to Sun Network family for a consideration of Rs 60-crore deal. This transaction, which was in the making for some months, was clinched in recent weeks, with the buyers expected to use the property as a corporate office for Sun Network.
And, Embassy Group is close to divesting a prime patch just off Kasturba Road, in close proximity to UB City and Bangalore’s lungs-Cubbon Park, in favour of HDFC Realty Fund for a sum of Rs 60-70 crore. HDFC Realty Fund may be roping in a local developer for constructing a high-rise residential project of approximately 1 lakh sq feet, on the 36,000 sq ft property, overlooking the city landmarks. Earlier, Embassy Group, which has developed some of Bangalore's landmark office buildings, had similar plans.
While Prestige Group chairman Irfan Razak confirmed the deal to VCCircle, mails sent to NetApp India president Vikram Shah and spokespersons of DLF and HDFC elicited no response at the time of posting the story.
NetApp India may be looking at a huge office space development in Whitefield. In earlier media reports in 2008, NetApp had said, it would hike its head count in India to 2,000 (from 750 at that time) and would look at investing up to $300 million in the country.
A realty consultant, requesting anonymity, said, that there is a heightened trend towards buying assets by corporates. “There is lot of interest. In recent weeks, I have been swamped with calls,” says L J Hooker chief operating officer Chaitanya Manohar. But, it is still early days yet and till deal closures take place, we can only call it increase in interest, says another tracker.
A few days back, VCCircle reported on Oracle's talks to buy one million sqft office space in one of the upcoming projects of Brigade Enterprises for Rs 500-550 crore. This deal, if it goes through, will be one of the biggest office space acquisitions in India recently. Industry trackers said these transactions signal an upturn in the market sentiments, with realty firms like Brigade, Embassy and Prestige cashing in on the early signs of revival.
