The government-backed and SBICAP Ventures-managed last-mile financing platform Special Window for Completion of Construction of Affordable and Mid-Income Housing Projects (SWAMIH I) has invested Rs 158.50 crore in a residential-led mixed-use project in Thane’s Ghodbunder Road.
The investment will lead to revival of the stalled project consisting of a total seven towers with one commercial building. The project has over 1,076 units and the last-mile financial support from SWAMIH I will provide relief to over 500 home buyers who have been waiting for their homes.
The project Pushpanjali Residency Phase 3 was started in 2010 and had stopped multiple times due to delay in approvals, lack of funds and cost escalations following the complications related to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic.
“We feel SWAMIH has brought in the funding in a structure that no other lender could have provided for this project…We are hoping to deliver four wings of the project that are already nearing completion by Diwali 2023,” said Mohan Shinde, director, Shriraam Pioneer Developers, the project’s developer.
With the financial support, the developer is now looking to complete the construction of the first four towers in the project by the end of this year as most of the structure construction of these buildings has been completed.
All the over 500 homebuyers have bought apartments in these first four towers and are now expected to get possession by December. The construction of the remaining three towers is yet to commence and is expected to be started soon after the delivery of the first four towers.
“We believe SWAMIH Fund was the only resolution for this project and the quantum and the structure of funding that SWAMIH provides is one of the best. SWAMIH has come in as a perfect financial partner in the project ensuring there are no loose ends when it comes to funding and compliances,” said Laxminarayan Ranga, co-founder of FYG Advisory that facilitated the transaction.
SWAMIH is a category-II alternative investment fund (AIF) that was announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in September 2019 and was approved by the Cabinet in November 2019. The fund had received a commitment of Rs 10,037.5 crore in its first close in December 2019, where the government of India had committed a fund infusion of up to Rs 5,000 crore.
The government recently announced an additional investment of Rs 5,000 crore, taking its final close to Rs 15,530 crore. The additional commitment will enable the fund to continue to evaluate deals until December 2024.
State Bank of India is one of the anchor investors of the fund along with Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). Mortgage lender HDFC and major nationalised banks are also among its key investors.
This fund is the crucial part of the measures taken up by the government to infuse liquidity in stressed projects to help homebuyers across the country get delivery of their stuck apartments.
SWAMIH has helped unlock liquidity worth more than Rs 35,000 crore in the economy by helping completion of stalled housing projects across the country.
The Rs 15,530-crore fund sponsored by the ministry of finance, provided final approval to 130 projects as on March, with sanctions worth Rs 12,500 crore. It has already completed 20,557 homes and aims to complete over 81,000 homes in 130 projects over the next three years across 30 tier-1 and 2 cities.
