ASK Property Investment Advisors (ASK PIA), the real estate private equity arm of the ASK Group intends to raise about Rs 1,500-2,000 crore for its sixth fund, to be invested mainly in residential properties. ASK PIA intends to complete the fund-raising this year.
“We are focused on raising money predominantly from high net worth individuals (HNIs) and family offices. We have fully deployed our previous fund, the fifth fund, in six investments and we see a comeback in demand for residential properties,” ASK PIA chief executive officer and managing director Amit Bhagat said.
The firm has “fully deployed” Rs 900-crore corpus of its fifth fund across the country’s top six cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata – and the proceeds of the sixth fund would be also invested across the same cities.
The latest fund would be deployed at project levels of affordable to mid-segment (Rs 45 lakh-Rs 1 crore) residential properties. The funding would be provided to “execution-focused reputed developers”. As of now, ASK PIA has invested a total of Rs 5,000 crore across mid-segment and affordable housing projects.
“We are now investing only in projects that have received approvals and we are doing early stage, mid-mile and last-mile funding. We are looking at monetising through exits rather than through redevelopment of these residential projects,” Bhagat added.
On the commercial real estate front, with corporates asking their employees to return to work leasing demands are also bouncing back. Due to the stamp duty benefits, there is sustained demand from cities such as Mumbai and Pune, he added.
On November 11, ASK PIA had invested Rs 215 crore in Mahagun Group’s mid-income housing project in Noida, marking its seventh investment in Noida and 11th in the National Capital Region (NCR).
Earlier, it had also received approvals from International Financial Services Centre Authority to set up and manage a first real estate-focused fund from GIFT City in Gujarat.