IKEA purchases 10-acre land in Gurugram for Rs 842 crore at Huda e-auction

The Haryana Urban Development Agency (HUDA) has sold 10 acres of land in Gurugram to the global home-furnishing company IKEA for Rs 842 crore.

Through an e-auction, Ikea has purchased the land. HUDA has put the land up for auction on October 6. IKEA already has a presence in the city, a corporate office in Cyber Hub.

The firm plans to open 25 stores in India by 2025 with an investment of Rs 10,500 crore. Before Gurugram deal, the Swedish firm has also purchased land in Hyderabad and Mumbai to set up stores.

Before this, Huda's record deal was for a 7,820 sqm (2 acres) plot it sold to car-maker Hyundai in November 2016 for Rs 205.88 crore.

J Ganesan, chief administrator of Huda, said, "It will augment our efforts to ensure a steady revenue stream for Huda. This is not a one-off deal as we have planned auctions of other institutional and commercial properties across the city in the next few months.

Gurugram has seen reduced demand for land, mainly due to rapidly changing investment scenario in real estate, especially in the commercial sector."

Ikea should have told Robert Vadera that they need 10 acres commercial land in Haryana. Ganesan hoped the Ikea land deal would act as a trigger for the real estate market and help in reviving business sentiment in the city.

"Contrary to the prevailing trend of falling real estate prices and reduced demand, this deal exhibits the city's potential to be a global destination," he said.Huda had found no takers for the Sector 47 land in earlier bids.

"The site was put up for e-auction three times but it had no takers until October 31 when the multinational company finally participated," said Huda's Gurugram administrator Yashpal Yadav, adding a few more global corporate houses were in touch for purchasing plots.