Lodha to invest $426 mln on Mumbai project

MUMBAI: Indian real estate firm Lodha Developers plans to invest Rs 20 billion to build a 117-storey residential tower in central Mumbai, its managing director said on Tuesday.

The company, which plans to launch a $650 million initial public offering later this year, will start bookings by end of this month and expects to complete the project, called World One, by 2014, Abhisheck Lodha told reporters. He said the firm expected to roll out 300 residential apartments and notch sales of about 50 billion rupees from the project.

Last month, Lodha paid more than twice the asking price to win a plot of land in central Mumbai for 40.5 billion rupees, in what was the single largest land transaction in the city.

Property prices in major Indian cities such as Mumbai and Delhi have nearly doubled in the past year, as home and office buyers return and mortgage rates remain in single-digits.