The Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income Housing (SWAMIH) Investment Fund I is India’s largest social impact fund specifically formed for completing stressed and stalled residential projects.
The Fund is sponsored by the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, and is managed by SBICAP Ventures Ltd., a State Bank Group company. The Fund has no precedent or comparable peer fund in India or in the global markets.
It has raised Rs. 15,530 crore 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.
SWAMIH has so far provided final approval to about 130 projects with sanctions worth over Rs 12,000 crore. In three years since inception in 2019, the Fund has already completed 20,557 homes and aims to complete over 81,000 homes in the next three years across 30 tier 1 and 2 cities.
Since the Fund considers first time developers, established developers with troubled projects, developers with a poor track record of stalled projects, customer complaints and NPA accounts, even projects where there are litigation issues, it is considered as the lender of last resort for distressed projects.
Robust supervision and control over project expenditures are the mainstay of SWAMIH’s investment process, enabling faster project completions. The Fund’s presence in a project often acts as a catalyst for better collections and sales even in projects that were delayed for years.
Given the robust controls and despite the track record of the projects and promoters, the Fund has been able to complete construction in 26 projects and generate returns for its investors.
The Fund has also played a critical role in the growth of many ancillary industries in real estate and infrastructure sector having successfully unlocked liquidity of more than Rs. 35,000 crore.