MUMBAI: Industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla is believed to have emerged as the highest bidder for Jatia House, a sprawling bungalow on Malabar Hill . Knowledgeable sources in the real estate market said Birla had quoted around Rs 425 crore, making it probably the most expensive bungalow property to change hands in Mumbai till now.

Sources said four other bidders — two industrialists from Mumbai and one from Delhi, and a developer—were in the race when bids were opened last week. The deal was brokered by global property consultant JLL India, which declined comment when contacted. A spokesperson for the Aditya Birla Group, of which Kumar Birla is chairman, also declined comment, saying it was a personal matter.

Birla lives with his family in a three-storey mansion in the prestigious Carmichael Road enclave. Birla is said to have no plans to redevelop the Jatia property.

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Jatia House is a two-storey bungalow with a built-up area of over 30,000 sq ft on land measuring a little under an acre. The bungalow was built in the 1950s and owned by Arun and Shyam Jatia of Pudumjee Pulp and Paper Mills Ltd, part of the MP Jatia Group of Companies.

"The Jatia brothers have been trying to sell the property for the past two years. In fact, a property redeveloper had almost bought the bungalow last year, but then backed out because of regulatory issues," said a person in the know.

The Jatias, who have lived in the bungalow for about four decades, were said to be finding it difficult to maintain the property. "Most of the family members have moved away, and the few who remain found the property too big to live in," said the person quoted earlier.

As reported by TOI on September 2 of last year, Amit Jatia, who holds the McDonald’s India franchise and is part of the another branch of the Jatia family (BL Jatia Group) purchased Razak Haven, an old three-storey building at Nepean Sea Road for around Rs 175 crore.

Jatia House on Malabar Hill is close to another landmark bungalow, Meherangir, once the home of Homi Bhabha Bhabha, father of India’s atomic energy programme. The 17,150 sq ft property was bought last year in an auction by the family of Smita Crishna, sister of industrialist Jamshyed Godrej, for Rs 372 crore. The family said it would not raze the historical property, and plans to move in.

In 2011, industrialist Sajjan Jindal bought Maheshwari House, a three-storey, sea-facing bungalow with a porch and a garden at Nepean Sea Road, for Rs 400 crore, a price that is now set to be eclipsed by the Jatia-Birla deal.

In 2013, MP Aggarwal, chairman of Sajjan India, paid Rs 180 crore to the Fazalbhoy family to buy Glamis Villa, a bungalow on Bhulabhai Desai Road off Breach Candy. The ground-plus-two-storey bungalow with a carpet area of around 11,000 square feet and three garages was built in the 1930s and once belonged to Hari Singh, the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir.

Last year, TOI had reported how some of Mumbai’s uber-wealthy were zeroing in on bungalow properties as the ultimate status symbol.

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