Certus Capital invests Rs 500 cr in 4 projects, takes credit portfolio to Rs 1,000 cr

Institutional real estate investment firm Certus Capital has deployed around Rs 500 crore through secured private credit across four projects, including one commercial office development and three residential projects.

These investments, part of the firm's broader strategy to scale its credit portfolio in the real estate sector, have taken Certus Capital’s total secured private credit investments to Rs 1,000 crore.

The recent investments include a commercial office project near Juhu in Mumbai’s western suburbs, where around half the inventory has been pre-sold. In the residential segment, the firm has invested in a project in central Mumbai’s Prabhadevi, where structural work is largely complete and more than 60% of units have been sold.

Another investment is in a residential project in Andheri East, where construction has reached the top-out stage for two of the three towers. These additions to the Mumbai investment portfolio are spread over 530,000 sq ft.

Certus Capital has also invested Rs 180 crore in a residential real estate project in Hyderabad, marking its first investment in the city. The project has a total saleable area of 3.3 million sq ft and is planned across two development phases.

“These investments are in line with our plan to expand our portfolio geographically by leveraging private credit opportunities in the real estate market. Given the fact the debt financing opportunity is expected to grow to Rs 14 lakh crore by 2026, it gives us a long runway for growth,” Ashish Khandelia, founder, Certus Capital, told ET.

Going forward, according to him, the firm is aiming to maintain the momentum of over 100% growth in investments intact in 2025-26 while remaining hawkishly focused on investment quality. He expects the demand for capital in the real estate sector to remain robust.

The investment in Hyderabad project is part of a co-lending arrangement with a non-banking finance company that manages assets exceeding Rs 78,000 crore. This is in line with Certus Capital’s strategy to structure its real estate credit exposures in partnership with large financial institutions, enabling risk-sharing and broader institutional participation across its investment portfolio.

In 2024, Certus’ Rs 130 crore investment in a Pune project saw Rs 50 crore participation from an NBFC with over Rs 1 lakh crore assets under management. Another housing finance company has sanctioned participation in Certus’s south central Mumbai investment that was closed in January.

So far, Certus Capital has invested in real estate projects in Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and is in an advanced stage of evaluation in Bengaluru. The investors include family offices (single family and multi-family), high networth individuals, CXOs and institutions.