Record $850m Indian deal may be a bargain | beyondbrics | FT.com

India’s luxury real estate developer Lodha set a new record in the country’s coveted battle for land when It paid more than twice the asking price in an open auction for a plot in the centre of Mumbai, India’s financial hub.

The Rs40.5bn ($850m) transaction is the biggest in India’s history for a plot of land and several analysts have dubbed risky and too expensive. But, is it really a ‘ridiculous’ buy, as one to Mumbai banker claimed? Perhaps not, when you look into the details.

The amount Lodha plans to pay , Rs81,818 ($1,729) per square metre for 25,000 sqm, clearly takes the cost of land in Mumbai into a new territory. But then, a glance at the other bids shows they weren’t much below the winning offer.