• Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman handed over keys to homebuyers from select projects in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), whose long-stressed residential projects have been completed under the ‘Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income Housing (SWAMIH) Investment Fund’.

• The milestone marks the completion of 50,000 homes under SWAMIH. 

• Another 40,000 units will be completed in 2025, further helping middle-class families who were paying EMIs on loans taken for apartments, while also paying rent for their current dwellings.

• In the Union Budget 2025-26 Sitharaman announced that SWAMIH Fund 2 will be established as a blended finance facility with contributions from the government, banks and private investors. 

• This fund of Rs 15,000 crore will aim for expeditious completion of another one lakh dwelling units.

What is SWAMIH Investment Fund?

• The proposal to set up a ‘special window’ in the form of Alternative  Investment Fund (AIF) to provide priority debt financing for the completion of stressed/stalled housing projects was approved by the Union Cabinet in November 2019.

• The ‘Special Window for Affordable and Mid-income Housing’ (SWAMIH) Investment Fund has been formed to complete construction of stressed, brownfield, RERA registered residential developments that are in the affordable housing/mid-income category, are net worth positive and require last mile funding to complete construction.

• The SWAMIH Investment Fund is India’s largest social impact fund specifically formed for completing stressed and stalled residential projects.

• 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.

• The Fund is sponsored by the finance ministry and is managed by SBICAP Ventures Ltd., a State Bank Group company.

• The government of India is the sponsor of the fund and has committed a fund infusion of up to Rs 10,000 crore in the special window.

Funding is provided to the projects that meet the following criteria:

i) Stalled for lack of adequate funds

ii) Affordable Middle-Income Category

iii) Net worth positive projects

iv) RERA registered

v) Priority for projects very close to completion.

• 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.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)