When ‘real estate’ or ‘property prices’ rise, builders, brokers and investors celebrate. Self-styled ‘pundits’ appear on business news channels touting rising property prices as indicators of ‘healthy demand’ and a ‘booming property market’. The stock market too takes the cue and bumps up a few points.
However, for each builder, broker or investor that celebrates, there are easily a thousand homebuyers who rue in frustration as their dream of owning a home gets further away.
While existing property owners also become jubilant at rising capital prices and rentals, little do they realise that they too will have to fork out the same exorbitant prices when they go house-hunting for their near and dear ones.
While hundred-crore property deals have become daily news in Mumbai, one must take a look at the profile of owners purchasing them. Most of them are industrialists, wealthy elite or people with powerful bureaucratic and political connections.
Seldom will you find a white collared IT or corporate professional buying a hundred crore penthouse. Likewise, it is extremely unlikely to find a lawyer, doctor or engineer investing in such deals.
Moreover, a close look at newly launched real estate projects in Mumbai see insane and exorbitant pricing trends. 3 BHK flats in new Worli projects are going at Rs. 10 crores plus. 4 BHK flats are going at 13 to 14 crores.
At one point of time, a Rupees Five Lakhs Monthly salary was seen as extremely aspirational and respectable. Now that salary might not even get you a house in Andheri or Malad.
This is despite the fact that the supply has jumped exponentially. Initially FSI in Mumbai Island City was 1.33 and for Mumbai Suburbs was 1.00. Now that same FSI has roughly become 19 to 20 or even more (if one were to actually measure the total area constructed by builders divided by the plot area).
Take the case of Raheja Altimus in Worli. A premium office building. It is built on a three-acre plot that housed the Siemens Office in Worli. That old office building was presumably built on an FSI of 1.33 and was a low-rise with large open areas. K Raheja Corp then purchased it for around Rupees 600 Crore.
The newly constructed “Raheja Altimus” building now has 46 floors. It is 225 meters tall and has a total leasable area of 1.12 million square feet. Each constructed floor has a floor-plate area of 43000 square feet.
43000 square feet – that is the equivalent area of approximately forty (40) 3 BHK flats on each floor. Or in the alternative, it could house a 100 offices of 430 square feet each, inhabited by lawyers, doctors, engineers, architects or even small and medium business enterprises, just as the older office buildings in Worli were.
With so much supply coming into just a single project, the question arises – did the lease rentals come down. The answer is a resounding NO. Let us look at the recent corporate leasing deals executed for “Raheja Altimus” as reported in the press/news media:
04 November 2022: Morgan Stanley leases two floors across 86200 square feet in Raheja Altimus (39th and 40th floors) for approximately Rs. 2.80 crore per month (Rs. 325 per square foot)
30 January 2024: Barclays Bank PLC leases 64,000 square feet over 32nd and 33rd floors of Rahela ALtimus for 2.08 Crore a month (Rs. 320 per square foot per month).
24 August 2024: Blackrock Services India Private Limited leases 42,700 square feet space in Worli for Rs. 1.28 Crore per month (Rs. 300 per square feet per month). Security deposit of Rs. 12.81 Crore paid.
A quick perusal of the financial dynamics of the above three-mentioned transactions reveals that right from 2022 till 2024, K Raheja Corp has maintained the per-square-foot office rental consistently at above Rs. 300/- per square foot. It is possible that rates may also approach Rs. 400/- per square foot in 2026 as more floor plates get leased out in the complex.
Likewise, another office building nearby, ‘Ascent’ by K Raheja also landed a mega corporate leasing deal. Sports Technologies Private Limited, the parent company of fantasy sports platform “Dream11”, leased 169,250 square feet across four floors for a total annual lease rent of 30.46 Crore. This works out to an effective rent (or license fees as these are all ‘leave and license contracts’) to Rs. 300 per square foot per month.
Needless to add that “Raheja Ascent” is located right next to the ultra-premium “Raheja Artesia” building, whose ultra-luxury apartments have seen mega-crore deals. On 6 January 2026, Mumbai’s Free Press Journal newspaper reported that promoters of the pharmaceutical company “Ideal Cures” purchased two ultra-luxury residential flats for a combined consideration of Rs. 190.10 Crore.
The total carpet area of the flats was 12,114 square feet, working out an average per-square-feet rate of Rs. 1.56 lakhs per square foot.
It goes without saying that these property rates are astronomical, exorbitant and patently outrageous for even upper middle class professionals, who once aspired to own 3 BHK homes in Mumbai for a sum of say Rs. 4 to 5 crore. What will such people do? They would now probably look at places like Mulund or Thane, where such rates might be feasible. Or they might look at redevelopment projects in more congested parts of Mumbai where chawls are giving way to high-rises.
Mumbai’s exponential rise in property prices have been cheered by Industry insiders. The Government has remained a mute spectator. The common public have become the silent sufferers.
Take a look at the new licensees of Raheja Altimus and Ascent. The C-Suite executives and promoters will likely inhabit the poshest apartments in tony and affluent localities nearby. But what about the regular office staff like middle-level or junior executives. What about clerks and office assistants and peons? Where will they stay?
The Answer contains a dark and unforgettable truth. The bulk of the staff working in these ultra-posh offices is likely to commute in sub-human conditions from far away. While the Worli Sasmira Metro Station is nearby, it is an accepted fact that the Mumbai Metro is largely a feeder service to-and-from the local suburban train network. The bulk of the junior and clerical staff is likely to commute from far-off places like Kalyan, Ambernath and Badlapur on the Central Line and Palghar and Boisar on the Western Line. Distant localities like Virar have also now gotten priced out of the reach of the common man.
One only needs to take Mumbai’s local trains at 930 AM in the morning and see the deplorable, outrageous and sub-human conditions in which Mumbai’s white, blue and grey-collared officers commute to work. They reduce humanity to the basest level as workers jostle, crowd, shout and put their lives on the line for tiny bits of space in local train compartments.
The Mumbra rail tragedy which occurred in June 2025 is a case in point. Five commuters died and nine were injured as they fell off two local trains moving in opposite directions as they crossed each other. The investigative findings by the Government Railway Police (GRP) revealed that the deaths occurred due to overcrowding. The backpacks of the commuters brushed against each other, leading to them falling on the tracks, leading to five deaths and nine injuries.
Had house prices in Worli or any of the posh and affluent localities been lower, it is likely that budget commuters would not have to live at far-off distances. Corporates also could have shown some sensitivity to the needs of their employees by leasing boutique offices in Worli and BKC while leasing larger spaces at distant locations which would reduce the commuting distance for the average employee.
Free market advocates defend the rising house prices as market economics at work. I say that the prohibitive and exorbitant price required to pay for a roof over one’s head will only breed greed and corruption in the long run as disenchanted, frustrated but aspirational people resort to hook, crook and trickery to cobble up the billions required for a South Mumbai home.
Urban India has become the breeding ground for elitism and economic inequality. I call upon policy makers to act promptly before it becomes too late.
Aditya Pratap is a lawyer practising in the Bombay High Court. He is the founder of Aditya Pratap Law Offices, a law chamber with multi-domain expertise. His website can be viewed at adityapratap.in. His YouTube Channel videos can be viewed by clicking here.