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Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday announced a fresh Rs 15,000 crore 'SWAMIH Fund' for completion of 1 lakh units in stalled housing projects across various cities, a move aimed at providing relief to distressed homebuyers whose investments are stuck.
In November 2019, the Centre announced a stress fund named 'Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income Housing' (SWAMIH), to complete stalled housing projects across India.
The first fund, with a corpus of Rs 15,530 crore, is being managed by SBICAP Ventures Ltd, a State Bank Group company.
Sitharaman, in her budget speech, announced the SWAMIH Fund-2 following the success of the first fund.
Under the SWAMIH Fund-1, the finance minister highlighted that 50,000 dwelling units in stressed housing projects have been completed and keys have been handed over to homebuyers.
Another 40,000 units will be completed in 2025, further helping middle-class families who were paying EMIs (equated monthly installments) on loans taken for apartments, while also paying rent for their current dwellings, the finance minister said.
"Building on this success, SWAMIH Fund-2 will be established as a blended finance facility with contribution from the government, banks and private investors.
"This fund of Rs 15,000 crore will aim for expeditious completion of another 1 lakh units," Sitharaman said.
Under the SWAMIH Fund-1, Rs 15,530 crore has been raised so far with an aim to provide priority debt financing for the completion of stressed, brownfield and Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) registered residential projects that fall in the affordable, mid-income housing category.
A study, by data analytic firm PropEquity commissioned by SBI Ventures Ltd in 2019, estimated that about 1,500 projects with 4.58 lakh housing units were stalled/stressed and required aggregate funding of Rs 55,000 crore to complete the stalled projects.
Commenting on the move, Pradeep Aggarwal, chairman of Signature Global, said the SWAMIH Fund-2 with Rs 15,000 crore corpus will accelerate the completion of stalled housing projects, bringing relief to over one lakh homebuyers.
Ramani Sastri, chairman & MD of Bengaluru-based Sterling Developers, said it will definitely help complete a number of stranded projects, thereby meeting the housing demand and enhancing liquidity in the real estate sector.
Major housing brokerage firms Anarock, Square Yards and PropTiger welcomed the creation of the SWAMIH Fund-2, saying this will help complete stalled projects and provide much-needed relief to distressed homebuyers.
Anarock chairman Anuj Puri said the initiative will provide much-needed relief to homebuyers, especially in the National Capital Region (NCR).
In Delhi-NCR, many builders, including Unitech, Amrapali and Jaypee Infratech, have defaulted in completing their housing projects.
Dhruv Agarwala, Group CEO of Housing.com & PropTiger.com, said the initiative will play a vital role in restoring buyer confidence and improving liquidity in the sector.
Piyush Bothra, co-founder and CFO of Square Yards, said the allocation of Rs 15,000 crore under the SWAMIH Fund for completing 1 lakh stalled housing units is a significant intervention, providing relief to buyers impacted by delayed projects and supporting supply-side stakeholders.
Gurugram-based housing brokerage firm InfraMantra co-founder Garvit Tiwari too hailed the move saying this will help in the completion of a large number of projects in Delhi-NCR, which is worst affected in terms of stalled properties.
Bhavesh Kothari, founder and CEO of real estate consultant Property First, said the SWAMIH Fund's expansion through the launch of SWAMIH 2.0 is a crucial step toward the delivery of 1 lakh homes in stalled projects and injecting much-needed liquidity in the affordable and mid-income housing segment.
Ramesh Menon, founder director of Delhi Consortiums, said this is a welcome step in addressing the challenges faced by stalled and delayed real estate projects.