Jain Housing raises Rs 175 crore from Nippon Life and Apollo Global

The funds would be utilised to reduce the city-based company's existing debts, joint managing director Sreyansh Mehta said.

Chennai: Noted realtor Jain Housing has raised funds of Rs 175 crore from Nippon Life Asset Management Ltd and Apollo Global Management for about Rs 175 crore in two tranches, a top official said.

The funds would be utilised to reduce the city-based company’s existing debts, joint managing director Sreyansh Mehta said.

According to him, the company has about 19-20 ongoing housing projects across various cities in the country.

“The funds will be utilised to reduce the existing debts. It’s about Rs 462 crore…We are having ongoing projects at various cities like Chennai, Hyderabad, Tiruppur, Coimbatore..”, he told PTI.

He said the company in the past managed to receive Rs 5,150 crore from various financial institutions including GIC sovereign wealth fund – Singapore, Xander Finance.

To a query, he said the COVID-19 pandemic was a setback and in the last couple of months there have been improvements in buyer sentiments.

“The government has also helped (the construction industry) by reducing stamp duty, reduction in registration rates. We feel the demand will pick-up from 2021…”, he said.

As the real estate industry was returning back to normalcy post COVID-19 pandemic, southern markets like Chennai, Coimbatore, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad were expected to lead the recovery.

Citing a Knight Frank report, Chennai witnessed a six per cent rise in year-on-year residential sales in 2019 and the State capital has carved an identity of a stable market with strong fundamentals.

The affordable housing market in the range between Rs 40-Rs 60 lakh was expected to benefit due to the slashing of Goods and Service Tax, he said.

To a query, he said the buying trend seen among consumers was that those individuals who were staying in a 2BHK house and buying two BHK houses were shifting to purchase three BHK houses in the wake of the work-from-home concept coming in.

“Earlier they may be living in small two BHK houses. Now they are looking for much bigger house so that the third bedroom may be used to take up office related work (in the wake of work from home),” he said.PTI