ASK Property Investment Advisors, part of the Mumbai-based ASK group, will raise Rs 1,000 crore from high networth individuals and family trusts to invest in residential properties.
The ASK Real Estate Special Opportunities Fund planned to raise Rs 500 crore by February 2011 and the remaining in two-three months after that, said Sunil Rohokale, executive director, ASK Investment Advisors.
“This is the right time to identify and invest in projects of right developers,” says Rohokale, who was earlier with ICICI Home Finance as managing director.
Fund managers such as ASK, ICICI Venture and others are raising money from domestic investors at a time when commercial banks, especially public sector ones, are tightening lending to property developers after RBI’s new norms to curb speculation in the sector and the bribe-for-loan scam.
The new fund launches have also made the market competitive as fund managers are tapping the same sources, some fund managers say.
“There is competition and investors have to make a decision whom to back,” Sanjeev Dasgupta, president, real estate, ICICI Venture, said at an earlier interview. ICICI Venture is in the market to raise Rs 1,000 crore from domestic institutions.
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“Money from outside is finding it difficult to enter India. But a lot of NRI, HNI and family trusts are looking at investing in Indian real estate,” said Ambar Maheshwari, head, investment advisory at DTZ, a global property consultant.
Last year, ASK raised Rs 326 crore from the domestic market and invested over 70 per cent of it in four housing projects.