Government Fund for completing stalled housing projects achieves first closure at Rs 10,530 crore (US$ 1.51 billion)

Sponsored by Government of India, the Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income Housing Fund (SWAMIH) Investment Fund I, for providing last-mile funding to enable completion of construction of stalled housing projects, has achieved its first closing at Rs 10,530 crore (US$ 1.51 billion).

This Category II Alternate Investment Fund (AIF) has been formed under the Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income Housing as announced by Finance Minister on September 14, 2019, to provide last-mile funding to enable completion of construction of stalled housing projects, SBICAP Ventures Limited (SVL), an alternative asset manager and a wholly owned subsidiary of SBI Capital Markets Ltd (SBICAP) said in a statement.

It is estimated by SVL, which is the Investment Manager for the Fund, that this capital should be broadly sufficient to complete almost one lakh stalled housing units and release locked up capital of Rs 65,000 crore (US$ 9.30 billion) invested in these projects.

The Fund has attracted interest from investors such as Government of India, SBI, LIC, HDFC Ltd and all major public sector banks, said SBICAP.

The Government of India has committed a fund infusion of up to Rs 10,000 crore (US$ 1.43 billion) in the Special Window and further investments will be brought in through institutional and private investors to generate a total corpus of Rs 25,000 crore (US$ 3.58 billion).

The Government of India is the Sponsor of the Fund while SBICAP Ventures is the Investment Manager to this Fund.

"This scheme was approved by the Cabinet on November 2, 2019. It is estimated that there are about 4.58 lakh stalled housing units in India. The Fund aims to provide senior capital for last mile funding to complete construction of housing projects," SVL said.

Mr Sanjiv Chadha, MD & CEO, SBI Capital Markets and Chairman, SBICAP Ventures said "The Fund has made remarkable progress since its announcement on November 06, 2019. We have substantially completed the fund raising, have scaled up the team, formed the investment committee and have begun examining potential investment opportunities".

SBICAP expects that the capital provided by the Fund will help struggling home buyers get a home, free locked up capital in these projects, provide employment and increase the demand for construction sector commodities, thus providing a boost to economic growth.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.