More than 250 stalled housing projects to get Rs 24,151 cr funding

According to data from the Ministry of Finance, an alternate investment fund (AIF) backed by the government, which was set up in late 2019 to extend last-mile funding to complete stuck housing projects, has sanctioned Rs 24,151 crore for 252 projects. This will allow 147,378 homes to be built across the country. The fund, which was established under the Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income Housing (SWAMIH), has given final approval to 111 projects worth Rs 10,992 crore, while preliminary approval has been given to 141 projects worth Rs 13,159 crore. The total cost of the 252 projects, including private developer contributions, is Rs 64,536 crore. Over the last year, the SWAMIH fund has enabled the completion of over 4,000 housing units. For the next three to four years, the finance ministry expects at least 10,000 houses to be completed each year. Karnal, Panipat, Lucknow, Surat, Dehradun, Kota, Nagpur, Jaipur, Nashik, Vizag, and Chandigarh are just a few of the metros and Tier 2 locations where projects are being supported. After their stalled residential project, Rivali Park in suburban Mumbai was completed in May 2021, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman effectively handed over possession to 640 homebuyers. The SWAMIH fund provided funding for the first time to a housing project. Another success story for the fund came in December 2021, when the first phase of the Oxirich Sunskriti II project in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan, was completed. The keys were handed over to the homebuyers by Suresh Kozhikote, managing director of SBICAP Ventures, which has been entrusted by the government to manage this AIF. When the SWAMIH fund announced its first close in December 2019, it raised Rs 10,530 crore from 14 investors, including LIC, HDFC, and SBI. The plan was to set up a Rs 25,000 crore fund, with the government and other investors contributing. The government had pledged Rs 10,000 crore for this purpose, to jump-start the investment cycle in residential projects and deliver homes to people who have been hit by the double whammy of unfinished homes and missed home loan payments. It was also expected to increase private consumption once the houses were delivered. According to a late-2019 industry estimate, 4.58 lakh housing units were on the verge of being delivered due to 1,509 stalled projects. Image Source Also read: UP RERA revives 4-year stalled projects in Noida - Construction World