Qatar Holdings to Pump US$ 250 mn in Arthveda's Affordable Housing Fund

In a significant foreign investment in the affordable housing sector, Arthveda Fund Management Pvt. Ltd has said that Qatar Holding Llc has committed to invest $250 million in its affordable housing fund.

Bikram Sen, chief executive of Arthveda Fund, said that the subscription of the entire corpus of its foreign direct investment-compliant affordable housing fund by Qatar Holdings is the first significant foreign inward investment into India’s affordable housing segment after the recent Union budget.

The Union Budget on 1 February gave a big push to affordable housing projects and announced many incentives to realize the government’s housing-for-all initiative.

India needs to build 19 million urban housing units in the low- and mid-income category by 2022 across tier I, II and III cities which require a capital of $1 trillion, according to estimates by Arthveda.

Arthveda is an associate firm of Dewan Housing Finance Corp. Ltd (DHFL).

“Arthveda’s affordable housing fund leverages our entire group’s leadership in the low and mid-income lending segment and applies that to investments in affordable housing,” said Kapil Wadhawan, chairman and managing director of DHFL and Arthveda.

Apart from the affordable housing fund, which is Arthveda’s first offshore fund raising, the firm has raised domestic real estate funds earlier.

According to Arthveda, affordable housing is the main focus area in the country’s growth agenda and will trigger more foreign investments into this sector. The positive FDI policy changes that happened in this segment will also continue to give a boost to inward investments. 

The government of India has gradually removed minimum project and investment ticket size restrictions in this segment, which should significantly catalyze development and investment, Arthveda said in a statement.