The Government-Backed Swahim Fund has announced its successful exit from the CCI Rivali Park Wintergreen project in Mumbai, which was the first beneficiary of the initiative to provide last-mile funding to affordable housing projects that were stalled due to lack of funds.

The Fund — Special Window for Affordable & Mid-Income Housing or SWAMIH — was set up in November 2019 with an estimated size of Rs 25,000 crore. The SWAMIH fund was launched to provide relief to real estate developers that require funding to complete their unfinished projects and consequently ensure the timely delivery of homes to the home-buyers. It is expected that the scheme will aid the growth of the real estate sector in India.

The objective of the scheme is to provide priority debt financing for the completion of stalled housing projects falling under the affordable and middle-income housing categories. This ‘last mile financing’ of stalled projects will be extended through a Category-II AIF (Alternate Investment Fund) debt fund registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI

For the purposes of the fund, the government shall act as the Sponsor and the total commitment to be infused by the Government would be up to INR 10,000 crore.

The fund will be set up as a Category-II AIF (Alternate Investment Fund) debt fund registered with SEBI and would be professionally run.For the first AIF under the Special Window, it is proposed that SBICAP Ventures Limited shall be engaged to be the Investment Manager

Since the real estate industry is intrinsically linked with several other industries, growth in this sector will have a positive effect in releasing stress in other major sectors of the Indian economy as well.