Palais Royale clears another hurdle—but completion delays persist
The developer of Mumbai’s long-delayed Palais Royale has settled a creditor dispute at the NCLT, removing one obstacle even as the project remains unfinished and its regulatory registration has lapsed.
MUMBAI: Honest Shelters Pvt. Ltd., the developer of Mumbai’s long-delayed Palais Royale tower, which is touted to be India’s tallest residential skyscraper once completed, has settled a dispute with an operational creditor that had moved the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) seeking recovery of unpaid dues.
As per an NCLT order dated 27 October and reviewed by Mint, Honest Shelters has agreed to pay Interscape, a Mumbai-based architecture and interior decoration firm, ₹4.8 crore against total dues of ₹5.21 crore. The developer had already paid ₹1.05 crore prior to the settlement and committed to clearing the remaining amount in instalments by 31 December.
The order records that Saloni Sulakhe of law firm Dhaval Vussonji & Associates, appearing for Honest Shelters, handed over cheques worth ₹3.75 crore to Interscape’s counsel in court.
The settlement removes one more legal hurdle for a project that has been mired in delays since its inception over 15 years ago. However, questions over timelines persist.
Located in Mumbai’s Worli area, Palais Royale received regulatory approval for construction in 2005. It was originally developed by Shree Ram Urban Infrastructure Ltd (SRUIL), which exited the project after slipping into bankruptcy following years of stalled construction.
Honest Shelters paid ₹705 crore to acquire the project in 2019 at an auction conducted by Indiabulls Housing Finance to recover dues from SRUIL. Under Honest Shelters, the completion deadline was extended three times, with the most recent target set for December 2024.
A year after that deadline passed, construction remains visibly incomplete, with cranes still perched atop the tower—a conspicuous marker of delay for Mumbai residents.
The project’s registration with the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) has lapsed, according to the regulator’s website.
Queries emailed to Honest Shelters remained unanswered. Sulakhe did not respond to Mint’s messages.
Buyers unfazed
Even so, prolonged delays and regulatory lapses have not deterred buyers at the very top end of the market.
In December 2024, the promoters of Metro Brands Ltd purchased five apartments on the 61st and 62nd floors of Palais Royale for a combined ₹405 crore, making it the most expensive home purchase of 2024, according to data from Zapkey, a property registration data aggregation platform. More recently, in August this year, two apartments in the building changed hands for ₹50–52 crore, Zapkey data shows.
Part of the project’s appeal lies in its scale and scarcity. Most apartments at Palais Royale have a carpet area of 4,755 sq. ft or 6,522 sq. ft, according to MahaRERA. The largest apartment spans 37,243 sq. ft. By contrast, nearly half of the new homes sold in Mumbai in 2024 had a carpet area of under 650 sq. ft, MahaRERA data shows.
Some of the project’s attractiveness is also likely stemming from its exclusivity and the advanced stage of construction, according to Pankaj Kapoor, managing director of real estate data and analytics firm Liases Foras.
“The construction of the building has reached an advanced stage so people may be taking comfort in that. It may not take 15 more years for the project to be completed, maybe one or two more years," he said. Moreover, the project remains attractive to home buyers as such large apartments are not easily available in Mumbai.
“The project is also an exclusive address, so it is also a status symbol," he said.
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