Mumbai: A Canadian pension fund is looking to invest $2 billion in affordable housing projects in Mumbai, said Maharashtra’s chief minister Devendra Fadnavis while addressing a group of real estate exectives and bankers at a conference.

Fadnavis added that there is growing interest among financial institutions to invest in various affordable housing projects across the country.

“Last week I met the Canadian ambassador. He informed me that the Canadian pension fund is ready to invest $2 billion in affordable housing. There is a lot of interest from other financial institutions to invest in this sector," said Fadnavis. The chief minister did not specify which Canadian pension fund is looking to invest in affordable housing projects in the city.

Earlier this week, Mark Wiseman, the chief executive officer of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), which manages 268.6 billion Canadian dollars ($203.09 billion) in pension fund assets, was in India. At an interaction with Mint, Wiseman said that CPPIB will look to increase its exposure to the Indian consumer.

“I think over time we will see real opportunity there (consumer) like in other growth economies. Over time, we want more attachment with Indian consumers as India becomes a larger economy. We are very focusedly looking at co-investments in this sector," Wiseman told Mint.

CPPIB currently has $2 billion invested in India across the infrastructure and real estate sectors.

Separately, the Maharashtra chief minister urged developers to start work on the affordable housing projects and said that he expects around 3 lakh units in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) to be available by next year.

As part of the Housing for All scheme by 2020, the government has set a target of providing 11 lakh affordable houses in the next 5 years.

“We are working on our affordable housing policy and in the next 15 days we expect to announce a part of this policy," said Fadnavis.

He also raised concerns over the “misuse" of the slum redevelopment scheme and said the government may look to discontinue trading in Letter of Intent (LoI) if construction work doesn’t start.

“In the last few years we have seen trading in LoI and no construction on ground. If this continues we may discontinue trading in LoI," he said.

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