Cyrus Poonawalla buys iconic Lincoln House in Mumbai for Rs 750 crore

Cyrus Poonawalla, Group Chairman of Poonawalla Group who is based out of Pune, in a weekend sale purchased the iconic Lincoln House for Rs 750 crore. Such bulge-bracket property deals by the rich and the famous though are not new to the land-starved megapolis but the Lincoln House's deal for Rs 750 crore is mind-boggling.

Poonawalla's purchase becomes the largest ever real estate deal, beating the high-profile deal of industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla which had set a record last week when he paid Rs 425 crore for Jatia House in the plush Malabar Hill area.

Joining the league of Kumar Birla, Poonawalla will also use the property as a family residence. Though Grade-III heritage properties are open for redevelopment now, sources said Poonawalla wants to use the Lincoln House as a family residence.

The sale of the Lincoln House in the Breach Candy area of south Mumbai, which used to house the US Consulate, to the billionaire chairman of the Pune-based Serum Institute.

Founded in 1966, Serum Institute of India is the largest producer of drugs for snake bite.

The 2-acre Grade-III property at Breach Candy has a built-up area of around 50,000 sq ft.

Both the US Consulate and Poonawalla could not be reached immediately.

However, the property, which has been on the block since 2011, was sold at a lower price than what the Americans were demanding - a whopping Rs 850 crore.

Last year, the iconic Mehrangir, the house of the father of the nation's atomic programme, Homi Bhabha, in the Malabar Hill area, was sold to the Godrej family for Rs 372 crore.

In another high profile deal in 2011, the Maheshwari House was sold for Rs 400 crore.