MUMBAI: In the biggest residential transaction in recent times, a business family has concluded a bulk deal to buy four apartments in an upcoming residential tower at Nepeansea Road for Rs 240 crore. Real estate sources said the Taparia family’s flats bought from the Runwal Group are between the 28th and 31st floors of the luxury tower The Residence.The deal, made last month, works out to around Rs 1.2 lakh per sq ft (super built-up area; each flat has a carpet area of 4,500 sq ft). The tower is located close to Kilachand House, touted as Mumbai’s last standing grand palace.The Taparias once owned the contraceptive maker Famy Care, which they sold three years ago for about Rs 4,600 crore. The business family was also reportedly among the highest individual taxpayers from Mumbai.On Wednesday, the family’s legal firm, Wadia Gandhy, issued a public notice, stating its client was carrying out a title search of the Runwal property in which the family’s purchase includes 28 car parking slots.Two years ago, the Taparias had bought a 11,000 sqft duplex apartment for Rs 60 crore in a residential project at the Bandra Kurla Complex.The half-acre Nepean Sea Road plot on which the 35-storey tower The Residence is coming up once housed a two-storey bungalow called Nepean Grange, constructed in 1918.In 2011, the city-based Runwal Group bought the property for Rs 350 crore. The owners, the Kapadia family, had settled the deal for Rs 270 crore. But the bungalow also housed a tenant, the Lilani family, who demanded Rs 80 crore to vacate the property.The Taparia-Runwal deal comes at a time the residential luxury market in south and central Mumbai is stagnant. “This transaction does not represent the true market condition. The luxury market has been in bad condition for five or six years,” said Pankaj Kapoor of Liases Foras, a real estate research and data analytics firm. The island city currently has an inventory of luxury apartments that will take more than 80 months to sell in the present market conditions.A Knight Frank India report last month said premium market (luxury flats) did not see any pickup in the second half of 2016. There were no new luxury project launches in South Mumbai last year.According to Kapoor, Nepean Sea Road has a limited supply of luxury apartments and is a much-sought after residential enclave for the rich. “Everyone aspires to stay at Nepean Sea Road because it’s an upmarket neighbourhood,” he said.The last big apartment deal was reported in 2015 when a duplex in the under-construction Lodha Altamount, Altamont Road, sold for Rs 160 crore. The 10,000 sqft flat was bought by the Jindal family, which runs the pharma firm Jindal Drugs.In September 2015, industrialist Cyrus Poonawalla paid Rs 750 crore for the palace property at Breach Candy that once housed the US consulate. It was the costliest deal in the country for a private residence.