Kumar Mangalam Birla buys Malabar Hill's iconic Jatia House for a whopping Rs 425 cr

The iconic Jatia House in Mumbai’s Malabar Hill, which had been on sale for quite sometime, has finally found a new owner — Kumar Mangalam Birla of the Aditya Birla group. The Times of India quoted real estate market sources as saying that Birla had quoted a whopping Rs 425 crore for the bungalow. [caption id=“attachment_2425212” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Kumar Mangalam Birla in a file photo. Reuters[/caption] The bungalow built in the 1950s is two storied with a sprawling built-up area of over 30,000 sq ft. The offer made by Birla has made this the most expensive bungalow deal in the country. Other bungalows in the area that have sold for such high prices was Maheshwari House which sold for in 2011 and Homi Bhaba’s bungalow – which is right next door to Jatia house – sold for Rs Rs 372 crore in 2014. Indeed, may expected the Jatia House – which is almost twice the size of Mehrangir – to sell for much more. According to Mid-Day, the bungalow has been bought for Birla’s personal use. He now resides at Altamount Road. Reports suggest that the Jatias were finding it difficult to maintain the property. The Times of India reports ‘a person in the know’ as saying, “Most of the family members have moved away, and the few who remain found the property too big to live in.” According to an article in the Forbes India magazine, “The Jatias, originally from Bissau in the Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan, now have a conglomerate comprising paper, textiles, real estate and chemicals, along with restaurants. In the 1950s, while based in Burma, they established bases in Japan and Hong Kong. In the ’60s, one part of the family moved to Mumbai and started trading in textiles and chemicals. In 1970 they acquired Pudumjee Pulp & Paper Mills, a small but efficient mill in Pune. Then they acquired Hardcastle (a board manufacturing company), Modern Mills (a textile mill in Mumbai), Associated Stone Industries and so on. That is how the Jatias transformed from a solid, low-profile family into a diversified conglomerate.”