Polyester film manufacturer Garware Polyester (GPL) has sold its 200,000 sq. ft premises in Mumbai’s western suburb of Vile Parle to a local real estate developer, the Vastu Group, for Rs 150 crore.

The Vastu Group seems to have got a good deal in a market where builders are increasingly resisting the excessive price demands of landowners. Fifty thousand sq. ft of the property will be developed by the builder and returned to Garware for its office facilities.

Vastu paid Rs 10,000 per sq. ft for the Garware land and will incur a development cost of about Rs 2,000 per sq. ft for the 50,000 sq. ft it has to construct for Garware. The builder will also make profits from the land, since it is located near Mumbai’s domestic airport, an area where office complexes command premium rates.

The deal compares favourably with the last major sale in the area, when Gujarat Ambuja sold 90,000 sq. ft land for Rs 333 crore. Vastu has got the Garware property, which is 50 per cent larger, for half that price.

That builders might slowly be gaining the upper hand over landowners is also evident from the situation with Hindustan Composite’s 742,500 sq. ft land in Mumbai’s Ghatkopar suburb. It has been on the market for two years but still hasn’t found a buyer. Reason: the company’s promoters had initially wanted Rs 300 crore for the land but steadily upped their demand to over Rs 400 crore. This despite the legal issues surrounding the land, which the company has to sort out. Ditto for Ceat India’s industrial land in Mumbai. “The promoters started at Rs 100 crore, and have pushed the envelope to Rs 185 crore despite unsettled labour issues,” says a prominent broker.