Special Window for Affordable & Mid-Income Housing completes the first residential project

New Delhi, May 14, 2021

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman handed over possession of Rivali Park to homebuyers virtually on Thursday to mark the completion of the first residential project under the Central Government's Special Window for Affordable & Mid-Income Housing (SWAMIH).

Located in suburban Mumbai, this was the first housing project to have received funding under the SWAMIH Fund. The SWAMIH Fund was launched by Sitharaman in November 2019.

Rivali Park Wintergreens spread over 7 acres, comprises 708 units in various configurations. It is developed by CCI Projects Pvt Ltd (CCIPPL), an associate company of Cable Corporation of India Ltd.

The online event was attended by Anurag Singh Thakur, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs; Durga Shankar Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; Ajay Seth, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs; K Rajaraman, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs; Dinesh Kumar Khara, Chairman, SBI, and other officials from SBICAP Ventures Limited.

Addressing the event, Sitharaman said it was an important achievement since the SWAMIH Fund has worked its way through the difficult period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Union Government had stepped in to provide funding to the stressed affordable and mid-income housing projects to provide relief to the home buyers who had invested their hard-earned savings. Once these homes are constructed and completed, a large amount of capital locked up in these projects will be released.

These projects employ scores of construction workers and provide impetus to the allied industries such as steel and cement. Further, it also improves portfolios of banks and NBFCs and significantly improve the economic sentiment in the country, she said.

Sitharaman congratulated the SBICap Ventures team for converting a policy announcement into an on-the-ground funding institution that has achieved significant progress within a short time.

Mishra, in his address, pointed out that the real estate industry was the second-largest employment generation sector in India. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development has taken several steps in the last couple of years to ensure that the real estate sector not only survives the cycles but thrives. These measures include RERA, lowering GST rates and PMAY scheme, he said.

SBI Chairman said that, in the last 15 months, SBI had made significant progress to increase the scale of operations to a level that is generally achieved in 3 to 4 years by other private equity funds.

In a short period of 1.5 years since inception, the SWAMIH Investment Fund I today is one of the largest private equity teams in India and has done commendable work despite COVID-19 related restrictions.

The Fund so far has given its final approval to 72 projects that will complete 44,100 homes, while 132 projects have received preliminary approval, which will complete an additional 72,500 homes.

"Thus, the Fund is targeting to complete an aggregate of 1,16,600 homes. This Fund is bridging the trust deficit between homebuyers and developers by completing construction and delivering homes without depending on any other source of finance," he added.

NNN