In a heartening development for the Indian real estate market, KKR India Asset Finance Private Limited has made a major splash this year, committing in excess of $500 million for residential projects in the country. This is the highest such committed amount for any year in case of the global private equity biggie. This takes the total investment from the firm to a whopping $1 billion approximately across Indian real estate projects and investments are expected to be even higher in 2018 as per reports.
KKR has already pumped in Rs. 315 crore and Rs. 450 crore as investments in Runwal Group and Lodha Group which are both based in Mumbai respectively. Rs. 500 crore has been earmarked for the Bhartiya City Developers in Bangalore. These are some of the mega deals that have been cut by KKR in 2017. The investment for Bhartiya City Developers covers the township project in the Garden City by the developer while an affordable housing project in Gurgaon by Signature Global has received Rs. 200 crore in investment. Prince Foundation Limited, which is based in Chennai, has received Rs. 300 crore as investment for three of its projects.
KKR India Asset Finance is focusing majorly on affordable housing residential projects and construction finance which are two major future growth areas for investors. The firm has been adopting a long-term approach towards investing in affordable housing projects while construction finance is also being offered for taking care of the realty sector’s capital requirements. KKR India Asset Finance has GIC Pte. Limited from Singapore as an investor. KKR first invested Rs. 350 crore in the luxury project by the Wadhwa Group in Mumbai’s Ghatkopar called The Address.
According to reports, $1,096 million in equity was pumped in for real estate projects along with $501 million in debt financing between January and June, 2017. NBFCs have been steadily scaling up real estate exposure and are going beyond investments in residential ventures. Affordable housing is a hot investment category at present and benefits from the Government’s thrust on this category along with its infrastructure status.
