Motilal Oswal Real Estate (MORE), the real estate private equity arm of Motilal Oswal Group, on Wednesday said it has committed Rs 1,200 crore in the last 18 months, across residential and commercial projects in Ahmadabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad.
It plans to commit Rs 1,000 crore more during the current financial year.
These investments have been made in projects of Casagrand Group and Radiance Realty in Chennai, Ashwin Sheth Group and Marathon Group in Mumbai, Puravankara Group, Shriram Properties, Pacifica Group and Casagrand in Bengaluru and Phoenix Group in Hyderabad.
This also marks its first investment with Puravankara, Ashwin Sheth Group, Marathon and Pacifica Group. These investments have come on the back of a severe liquidity crunch in the real estate market post the IL&FS crisis. This was followed by the pandemic which aggravated the problem and wreaked havoc in the normal course of business, the company said.
“We believe the current market is in an upcycle, however, capital available still remains scarce to meet the growing requirements. Through our funds, we cater to the capital requirement during the entire project lifecycle i.e. land and approval financing, construction finance and last-mile funding,” said Sharad Mittal, CEO of Motilal Oswal Real Estate.
“As we emerged out of the first covid-led lockdown in Q2 last year, we saw housing sales pick up due to a mix of factors like increasing affordability, multi-decade low mortgage rates and the increased emotional value placed on home ownership during the pandemic. We believe that the fundamental factors combined with government initiatives will drive housing demand even higher in the near future. We also believe that the liquidity scenario will improve going forward and the realty sector will receive the much-needed funding,” Mittal added.
“With such a buoyant demand atmosphere, there has been an increased deal flow over the past 12 months. While we have committed more than ₹1,200 crore in the past 18 months, we have maintained a cautious approach and stuck to our investment philosophy. Our successful exits over the past 18 months are a result of this tried and tested investment philosophy and hands-on asset management,” Mittal said.
MORE currently manages four real estate funds and its cumulative assets under management (AUM) currently stand at about Rs 5,000 crore.