With Rs 1 Crore Per Month, Rental Goes Through Roof

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In April end, the London headquartered Barclays bank concluded negotiations to take on lease 15000 square feet of office space in CeeJay House, Worli, at a record-breaking rent of Rs 725 a square feet per month. This is so far the highest ever lease rental for any commercial property in the country.The monthly rent comes to Rs 1.08 crore or over Rs 13 crore annually. However, property experts said this is an exceptional deal and does not reflect the commercial lease rental market in Mumbai, which has been softening because of a steady supply of good office space.

The landlord of CeeJay House, located next to Poonam Chambers, is none other than civil aviation minister Praful Patel, who incidentally occupies a residential duplex spread over 35,000 square feet with a swimming pool in this building.
Sources who monitored the transaction said that Barclays already occupies 60,000 square feet between the 5th and 8th floors of Cee-Jay House since 2006. The bank has now taken an additional 15000 square feet on the 15th floor in order to expand its operations. The over 300-yearold Barclays is a major global financial services provider engaged in retail and commercial banking, credit cards, investment banking, wealth management and investment management services, with presence in Europe , the USA, Africa and Asia.

Among the other tenants in CeeJay House are Lehman Brothers, Societe Generale, KFW, Hypo Bank, Depfa Bank and Credit Suisse. Most of the top tenants in this building were introduced by the global property consultant firm C B Richard Ellis.

One of the biggest commercial lease transactions recorded in 2007 was when ABN Amro Bank renewed its lease for an office on the third floor of Nariman Point’s 12-storey Sakhar Bhavan at the rate of Rs 500 a square feet per month. Pranay Vakil, chairman of Knight Frank India, said about 8 million square feet of commercial premises will be added in the next six months to one year. They are mainly located on the Andheri-Kurla Road, Tulsi Pipe Road, Parel, Bandra-Kurla Complex and Kalina.