SWAMIH releases second instalment of stress fund to Capital Athena project in Greater Noida

The Special Window for Affordable & Mid-Income Housing (SWAMIH) fund has released the second instalment of the Rs 165 crore stress fund it had committed to Capital Athena project in Greater Noida. According to Greater Noida authority, the builder has also cleared dues of Rs 17 crore and will complete the project on time. The move will help 900 homebuyers who are awaiting delivery of the flats. “The builder had received the first instalment in May and after the satisfactory progress, SBICAP has released the second instalment. Sikka group has also received approval for the funding while funding for two more projects – Supercity and Jatasya is also under process,” said an authority official.

Earlier, SBICAP had approved Rs 249 crore for completion of Panchsheel Greens 2, a real estate project in Greater Noida.The last mile funding will lead to time-bound delivery to 2000 homebuyers.While the impact of liquidity issues was felt across all asset classes, the residential real estate was the most impacted.

To mitigate this impediment, in November 2019, the Government of India had announced INR 25,000 crore – Special Window to help complete over 1,500 stressed housing projects comprising around 4.58 lakh housing units. This move was directed towards stressed residential real estate assets under construction which are yet to be completed, including those that are declared NonPerforming Assets and have been admitted for insolvency proceedings. Due to the impact of the pandemic on the economy, fault lines in the real estate sector had started appearing since last year. Recently, SWAMIH has committed to invest in completing the phase II of Imperia Group’s residential project ‘The Esfera’ in Gurgaon.Before that, the fund has approved Rs 100 crore for Ansal Housing project in Gurugram.

The fund is managed by SBICAP Ventures, a 100% subsidiary of SBI Capital Markets, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the State Bank of India.

Many developers saw their cash flows drying up overnight due to various factors including market condition, economic scenario amongst others, leading to unfinished projects and impacting many home buyers. With this, the fund has provided preliminary and final approval to total 213 projects across the country committing Rs 17,000 crore. The fund is expecting 25 stressed projects to be completed that will deliver 12,617 homes in the next 12 months.