The real estate sector might have hit a rough patch of late, but that has not stopped India’s rich and mighty from striking housing deals in Delhi’s elite areas at fancy prices.

Three low-profile but high-value transactions worth Rs 300 crore have been closed in Central Delhi’s posh Golf Links locality, where infrastructure major GMR, a prominent auto dealer, former prime minister IK Gujral’s son Naresh Gujral and a politician have each bought a house in the past two months.
GMR has bought a house for over Rs 70 crore in the Golf Links from McDonald’s India (north and east) managing director, Vikram Bakshi. A privately-held firm of the GMR group is said to have closed the deal with Mr Bakshi, who has been living there for years.

In another deal, a leading Delhi-based auto dealer has reportedly bought a house adjacent to his own in Golf Links for around Rs 100 crore. Naresh Gujral has also reportedly bought a house in the same area. Another politician, whose identity couldn’t be ascertained, has bought a 575 sq yard house in Golf Links for around Rs 50 crore. At this valuation, the buyer may have paid at a rate of around Rs 8 lakh per square yard, perhaps one of the highest-ever paid in Delhi.

According to property consultancy firm Cushman & Wakefield, the average prevailing rates for Golf Links could be one of the highest in Delhi at Rs 7 lakh per square yard, marginally lower than Chanakyapuri’s Rs 7.25 lakh per square yard. Prices in both localities have shot up four-and-a-half times in the past three years and by over 50% in a year.

Lutyens’ Delhi, including Aurangzeb Road, Prithviraj Road, Mansingh Road, Shahjahan road, and the nearby posh localities of Chanakyapuri, Golf Links, Jor Bagh and Sunder Nagar have long been the preferred locations for India’s rich and powerful.

The past few years have seen quite a few deals in these localities, one rivalling the other in terms of value. Two years ago, industrialist and parliamentarian Navin Jindal bought a house for around Rs 150 crore on Mansingh Road. In another expensive deal, Bhushan Steel chairman Sanjay Singhal bought a bungalow at Amrita Shergill Marg for Rs 137 crore from the Dutch Embassy.

Bharti Airtel’s Sunil Mittal owns a house in the same locality, which he bought for Rs 40 crore. Steel tycoon LN Mittal, one of the world’s richest, also bought one in Aurangzeb Road a few years ago.