What is the SWAMIH investment fund and its affordable housing push

The Fund is sponsored by the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, and is managed by SBICAP Ventures Ltd., a State Bank Group company.

Since the Fund considers first-time developers, established developers with troubled projects, developers with a poor track record of stalled projects, customer complaints and NPA accounts, and even projects where there are litigation issues, it is considered as the lender of last resort for distressed projects. The Fund’s presence in a project often acts as a catalyst for better collections and sales primarily in projects that were delayed for years.

According to the Finance Ministry, SWAMIH Fund has one of the largest domestic real estate private equity teams focused only on funding and monitoring the completion of stressed housing projects.

How many projects so far have been financed by the Fund?

SWAMIH has so far provided final approval to about 130 projects with sanctions worth over Rs 12,000 crore. The Fund has completed 20,557 homes and aims to complete over 81,000 homes in the next three years across 30 tier 1 and 2 cities.

The Fund has been able to complete construction in 26 projects and generate returns for its investors, a government release said. It added, “The Fund has also played a critical role in the growth of many ancillary industries in real estate and infrastructure sector having successfully unlocked liquidity of more than Rs. 35,000 crore.”

Notably, one of the biggest projects that it finished successfully was the Rivali Park residential project, located in Borivali, Mumbai, in 2021. Spread over seven acres and consisting of 708 units of various configurations, the residential area was developed by CCI Projects Pvt Ltd.

Launched in November 2019, it has raised Rs 15,530 crore so far with an aim to provide priority debt financing for the completion of stressed, brownfield and RERA-registered residential projects that fall in the affordable, mid-income housing category.