CHENNAI: With a focus on affordable and mid-income housing, Piramal Finance (PFL), a unit of Piramal Enterprises, has identified an initial deal pipeline of Rs 3 ,000 crore. The company said it has set up a dedicated team for this purpose.
“Over the past few years, we have been partnering with developers for providing financial assistance. But with this model, we will be able to participate across the entire capital stack,” said Khushru Jijina, managing director, Piramal Finance.
The company has identified projects in the Mumbai metropolitan region, Bengaluru and Chennai. It will also look at projects in Pune, Ahmedabad, Surat, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad and Kolkata. “We are typically focused on funding projects in the major metros and looking to tap the tier-2 cities, which offer number of affordable housing options,” said Jijina.
The company plans to provide both pure and preferred equity capital to top-grade developers that are looking to buy or develop land and need early-stage growth capital. The company may also actively pursue an opportunistic acquisition of land on its own accord and invite developers to participate on a joint development basis.
According to Jijina, developers today have learnt to control costs and are looking at higher volumes and quick sales through budget homes. Even domestic investors in the residential segment are clearly looking to tap into the affordable housing space.
“Our ability to further drive sales through Brickex and fund those sales through home loan products tailored for salaried and self employed users acts as a competitive advantage. We now have a highly experienced team focused exclusively on scaling our presence within this segment and intend to scale up to $2 billion by 2020,” he added.