DHFL’s Rs 7,500 Cr funds Stuck in Mumbai Realty Projects

Eight Mumbai-based realty firms owe over Rs 7,500 crore to Dewan Housing Finance Ltd, the beleaguered housing finance company taken over by the Piramal Group recently. According to documents made available,

BY Realty Plus
Published - Wednesday, 03 Mar, 2021

DHFL’s Rs 7,500 Cr funds Stuck in Mumbai Realty Projects

Eight Mumbai-based realty firms owe over Rs 7,500 crore to Dewan Housing Finance Ltd, the beleaguered housing finance company taken over by the Piramal Group recently. According to documents made available, DHFL promoters had provided construction finance to these builders for residential housing projects in Mumbai, which are now shown as ‘non-performing assets’ (NPAs). Piramal Group has started scouting for reputed and financially solid developers to take over these stalled projects and recover the money. One of the biggest projects in the lot is One Mahalaxmi, a 5-acre residential development at Jacob Circle promoted by Neelkamal Realtors (D B Realty). Other biggest borrower on the DHFL list is Radius Group, with an outstanding loan with interest of around Rs 3,000 crore for a residential project in Santa Cruz (west) called Avenue 54. The project is a joint venture between Radius and Sumer Group. Incidentally, in 2019, Avenue 54 was taken over by Yes Bank after the developer, Sumer Radius Realty, failed to repay a Rs 479-crore loan. Another large loan sanctioned by DHFL was to a little-known builder named D K Realty India for a residential project called Livsmart in Kurla. The loan sanctioned was Rs 967 crore but has increased to over Rs 1,100 crore with principle interest, penal interest and accrued interest. Another lesser-known developer, Rajen Skyscrapers, was sanctioned over Rs 600 crore for a society redevelopment, Palm Land, in Bandra (west). The project never took off and total outstanding is now over Rs 750 crore. The Wadhawans also sanctioned Rs 13,500 crore as loans for three slum redevelopment projects (SRA) in Juhu Gully, Irla and Chembur. Documents accessed show that as of August 2020, DHFL had sanctioned construction finance totalling Rs 13,623 crore, mortgage loans of Rs 7,444 crore and corporate loan finance of Rs 15,159 crore. All these loans were mainly given to builders across the country.