News: The RBI has designated SWAMIH Fund-I under the “specified exemption category” in its “Investment in AIF (Alternate Investment Fund) Directions, 2025”. As a result of this exemption, regulated entities (REs) such as banks and NBFCs investing in SWAMIH Fund-I will not be subject to the usual caps and provisioning rules applicable to AIF investments.
About SWAMIH Fund (Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income Housing Fund)
- It is India’s largest social impact fund specifically formed for completing stressed and stalled residential projects.
- Launched on: 6 November 2019
- Objective: To provide priority debt financing for stalled residential projects in the affordable and mid-income housing segment.
- Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Finance, Government of India.
- Managed by: SBICAP Ventures Ltd (a subsidiary of the State Bank Group).
- Corpus raised: approximately ₹ 15,530 crore.
- Achievements: Over 50,000 housing units completed under the scheme (as of early 2025).
- Key feature: acts as a “lender of last resort” for projects that conventional lenders may avoid due to risk.
- The project identifies established developers with poor track record of stalled projects, NPA accounts, customer complaints even projects with litigation issues along with first-time developers as lenders.
- It has one of the largest domestic real estate private equity teams that are focused on monitoring and funding the completion of stressed residential properties
About SWAMIH Fund 2
- Announced in the Union Budget 2025-26 (1 February 2025)
- Allocation: ₹ 15,000 crore corpus.
- Target: Expedite completion of 1 lakh (100,000) additional housing units in stressed projects.
- Model: A blended finance facility, combining contributions from the government, banks and private investors.
- Specific benefit for middle-class homebuyers: assists families who are both paying EMIs on home-loan for their apartment and paying rent for their current dwelling because the apartment was delayed.
- Intended sectoral effect: inject liquidity, restore trust in the housing market, assist completion of delayed projects, thereby stabilising the real-estate segment.
