HDFC Capital, the real estate investment arm of HDFC Group, has placed its first bet in eastern India with an investment in a township project.
Spread across 72 acres in Rajarhat (West Bengal), the project will be jointly developed by Satyaa Homes and Ambuja Neotia Group. The project will have plotted developments, villas, villaments and apartments.
It is scheduled to be completed in the next five years, the statement said.
While the statement did not specify the investment size, persons in the know told VCCircle that HDFC Capital has put in roughly Rs 150 crore (about $20 million) in the project.
Anarock Property Consultants worked on the transaction.
“Today, customers are looking forward to having a small home of their own on a freehold property where they can have a private patch of green. This is more so in the post-pandemic world,” said Harshavardhan Neotia, chairman - Ambuja Neotia Group.
"This deal is well-timed, aligning with the renewed aspirations in Kolkata for quality homes in superlative settings. Rajarhat's residential sector offers options across all budget segments but the affordable segment is predominant, accounting for nearly 54% of the housing supply here. The mid-end segment housing accounts for only around 29% of the region's residential supply,” said Soumendu Chatterjee, director and city head, Kolkata, Anarock Property Consultants.
Rajarhat is home to major IT-ITeS companies like Cognizant Technology Solutions, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, and Ericsson India Global Services.
The project is situated in the vicinity of a 100 acre residential project by Unitech called Uniworld and Candor Tech Park.
The development comes months after VCCircle reported that HDFC Capital has backed an affordable housing project of Ambuja Neotia Group in Kolkata.
Ambuja Neotia Group has a presence across education, real estate, hospitality and healthcare. In real estate, it has projects in residential, retail and commercial segments.
HDFC Capital manages HDFC Capital Affordable Real Estate Fund 1 (HCARE-1) and HCARE-2. HCARE-1 and HCARE-2 together have a $1.1 billion platform targeting affordable and mid-income residential projects in India's leading 20 cities.
The primary investors in HCARE funds include the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF).
The primary objective of this platform is to provide long-term, equity and mezzanine capital to marquee developers at the land and pre-approval stages.
In October last year, it set up a special purpose vehicle with Arvind SmartSpaces Ltd, a part of the Lalbhai Group, with an initial investment of Rs 250 crore.
Prior to that, it tied up with Tribeca Developers to set up a platform for mid-income housing. Previously, it backed ATS HomeKraft and Prestige Projects.
