Blackstone-backed ASK Group’s real estate investment arm has launched its maiden luxury real estate fund in partnership with a luxury-focused real estate developer amid a boom in the property segment.
ASK Property Fund, which dabbled in the luxury housing market with a handful of deals last year, has now floated a dedicated luxury housing fund in a tie-up with India Sotheby’s International Realty. This is India’s first luxury housing-focused investment vehicle.
The vehicle, a category-II alternative investment fund registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India, has a target corpus of Rs 1,000 crore and a greenshoe option of Rs 500 crore.
ASK Property Fund and India Sotheby’s International Realty will be co-sponsors to the fund. However, their respective contribution to the corpus is not known.
“We are confident that India's robust economic fundamentals and the increasing number of wealthy, will continue to drive growth in the country's luxury residential real estate market,” said Amit Bhagat, the chief executive and managing director at ASK Property Fund.
The fundraising timeline of the fund is not known yet. Its mandate is to invest in high-end and luxury real estate developments in Tier 1 cities and premium holiday home destinations.
Among its recent luxury housing bets, ASK Property Fund backed a residential project in Gurugram along with Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate and the property arm of Kanodia Group last month. The entities together invested about Rs 270 crore (around $31 million then) in the luxury housing project being developed by KREEVA, the real estate arm of Kanodia Group.
In its maiden luxury housing bet, ASK Property last February said it would infuse around Rs 120 crore in a project to be developed on Gurugram’s Golf Course Road by TREVOC Group.