The US Government has hired property consultancy Knight Frank to assess the valuation and strategic review of all its real estate properties in India. The properties, which house embassies, consulates, offices, residences, schools and libraries at prime locations across Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata, were acquired over the years and are estimated to be approximately worth thousands of crores.
Track2Realty has learnt that the strategic review and valuation is being done to understand the best use of all properties, including selling some of them. When contacted the US embassy did not respond and a Knight Frank spokesman said the firm did not comment on market speculation.
A couple of months ago, it was reported the US had sold Washington House, its residential building on Altamount Road in south Mumbai, to Lodha Group for Rs 375 crore. Lincoln House, which used to house the US Consulate general till last year, is also on the block, though legal issues are believed to have held up the sale of this property at Breach Candy, valued at over Rs 1,000 crore.
The US embassy has also in the past tried to sell a two-acre bungalow on Tilak Marg in New Delhi’s Lutyens Bungalow Zone to a private developer, but the foreign ministry refused to allow the sale as it felt the transaction price was much below market value of the property.
The real estate market, however, peg the current value of the bungalow on Tilak Marg in New Delhi at Rs 250-300 crore and say the US embassy is still interested in disposing of this property.
In addition to the heavily guarded embassy building in the diplomatic area, landmark properties in Delhi include the American Centre on Kasturba Gandhi Marg, the twoacre bungalow on Tilak Marg, the American School and a few apartments spread across south Delhi.
In Kolkata, the American Centre is located close to the posh Esplanade area while the consulate is on Ho Chi Minh Sarani in the city centre. In Chennai, the US government has a commercial property on the prime Anna Salai. In the past few years, some other governments have also sold properties owned by them in the country. In 2006, the Dutch Embassy sold a bungalow on Amrita Shergill Marg in Lutyens Bungalow Zone for Rs 137 crore to Sanjay Singhal, the Chairman of Bhushan Steel.
