Mumbai's Boom Turns Renters Into Millionaires

Mea Kadwani, 78, has lived in the same apartment in the Mukund Mansion in Mumbai since he was a toddler. Thanks to rent control laws, he paid less than $20 a month for decades, and $23 a month recently, for a 2,600-square-foot space in the upscale Nepean Sea Road neighborhood, where rents typically top $2,000 a month. Now he’s moving on: After three years of negotiations, he and his wife pocketed $2.5 million from Orbit, a real estate developer planning to turn the building into a garage for residents of its 29-story Villa Orb tower under construction next door.

The developer offered Kadwani an apartment in the new building. Instead, Kadwani took the money and moved to a first-floor flat nearby. “I refused an apartment in the redeveloped building, as the idea of staying in these tall towers didn’t appeal to me,” he says.