By AI Powered PMC Akbar Jiwani, Special Correspondent: Real Estate for Realnewsofindia.com
India’s push to clear the backlog of stalled residential projects is entering its most consequential phase yet, as the government moves to formally operationalise SWAMIH Fund-2, a ₹15,000 crore vehicle designed to complete roughly one lakh additional housing units for homebuyers who have been waiting years for possession.
WHAT IS HAPPENING
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has told Parliament that “formal steps to operationalise the fund are under way,” with the government finalising governance arrangements, investment parameters and disbursement mechanisms before capital begins flowing to stalled sites. The fund, announced in Union Budget 2026-27, will be managed by SBICAP Ventures Ltd and structured as an Alternative Investment Fund that provides priority debt financing to RERA-registered, brownfield residential projects — largely in the affordable and mid-income segments — where construction has stalled due to financial stress, legal disputes or developer default. The finance ministry has also held coordination meetings with banks, LIC and other institutional lenders to widen the fund’s capital base and scope.
WHY THE GOVERNMENT IS DOUBLING DOWN
The case for a sequel fund rests on the track record of the original SWAMIH Fund, launched in November 2019 and also managed by SBI’s investment arm. According to government data, the first fund has:
– Raised a total corpus of ₹15,530 crore and unlocked more than ₹37,400 crore in capital across 127-plus stalled projects
– Delivered around 61,000 to 63,200 completed homes, out of a total portfolio pipeline of roughly 1,01,443 units across 145-plus projects in 30-plus cities, covering more than 90 million square feet
– Generated over ₹6,900 crore in tax revenue for the Centre and states through GST, stamp duty and other statutory payments, while returning nearly half of drawn capital to investors, including ₹3,500 crore to the government
– Created more than 36,000 jobs, with 3,520 permanent positions and 15% female workforce participation, alongside secondary demand of roughly 20 lakh tonnes of cement and 5.5 lakh tonnes of steel
Affordable and EWS (economically weaker section) housing accounted for a significant share of this delivery — government figures put affordable housing at 44% of the fund’s portfolio, with more than 7,000 EWS units handed over to buyers.
WHY IT MATTERS FOR THE SECTOR
Stalled projects have long been one of the most persistent drags on confidence in Indian real estate, tying up homebuyers’ savings for years while eroding trust in under-construction purchases. SWAMIH-2 extends a model that market participants and analysts credit with directly improving sentiment: by injecting last-mile financing rather than equity, the fund completes units without requiring distressed developers to dilute ownership, while giving homebuyers a credible, government-backed pathway to possession.
Real estate industry voices, including developers such as Hiranandani, have pointed to SWAMIH-2 alongside other recent measures — such as changes to TDS on rentals — as part of a broader set of structural tailwinds for the sector this year. Combined with the Unified RERA portal rolled out to standardise regulatory disclosures nationally, and state-level digitisation drives such as Maharashtra’s move to embed GIS-based land records in property sale deeds from October, the SWAMIH-2 rollout adds another layer to the government’s multi-pronged effort to make Indian real estate more transparent, more bankable for institutional capital, and less risky for the ordinary homebuyer.
With formal operationalisation now in progress, the coming months will be watched closely for the first tranche of SWAMIH-2 disbursements — a milestone that could determine how quickly the next wave of stalled projects, and the families waiting on them, finally get to move in.
