Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd has tied up with Bangalore-based real estate player Prestige Estates to invest Rs 2,500 cr in affordable housing.
The tie-up has been implemented through its subsidiary HDFC Capital Advisors Limited, which is the investment manager to HDFC Capital Affordable Real Estate Fund 1. The fund, which focuses on middle income and affordable housing in India, has a corpus of Rs 2,700 cr raised from global investors.
Real estate firms and financiers like HDFC are increasingly targeting the affordable housing segment as growth has more or less dried up in the ‘general’ segment due to rapid increase in prices in recent decades.
Prestige Estates said the “dedicated real estate platform” formed by the two companies shall have a capital to the tune of Rs 2,500 crores, including both equity and debt.
“The primary focus will be on expanding Prestige’s residential business by identifying strategic land parcels with the potential of developing large-scale residential projects in the midincome segment,” it said.
“With this partnership, we are poised to grow manifold, and it will help us continue to build on the legacy of trust and efficacy that we are known for,” said Irfan Razack, Chairman and Managing Director of Prestige Group.
“Our endeavour is to scale up our residential platform, especially in the Affordable Housing sector that’s picked up huge demand and is currently vacuumed of supply and we are positive that this platform will facilitate long-term, sustainable value creation.”
Venkat K. Narayana, Chief Executive Officer of Prestige Group said the company came across “exceptional proposals and remarkable opportunities” in affordable housing.
“The platform can spawn a property development worth Rupees 10,000 Crores. This capital will enable us to not only strengthen our presence in the geographies we currently operate, but also to expand into different geographies and tap new growth markets enjoying high demand across the country,” he added.
Prestige Group is based in South India, but also has projects in Pune, Goa and Ahmedabad.
It has completed 212 real estate projects with developable area of over 81 mn sft.
It has 51 ongoing projects across segments, with total developable area of 53 mn sft. It also has 48 mn sff of upcoming projects and holds a land bank of 424 acres with potential developable area of over 42 mn sft, according to the company.