ICICI Prudential MF to launch ICICI Prudential Housing Opportunities Fund

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund launches a New Fund Offer – ICICI Prudential Housing Opportunities Fund. Read on to fund out more.

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has announced the launch of the ICICI Prudential Housing Opportunities Fund, an open-ended equity scheme with a housing theme. The goal of this fund is to generate long-term capital appreciation by investing in equity and equity-related instruments of firms that are involved in, or are expected to profit from, the housing growth theme.

The New Fund Offer (NFO) will be available on March 28, 2022, and will conclude on April 11, 2022.

The housing theme looks to be ready for a recovery as the real estate glut of 2008-2012 appears to have been digested. The number of Indians living in cities is expected to reach 525 million by 2025 and 600 million by 2036. Furthermore, India's real estate market is expected to reach one trillion dollars by 2030. When it comes to the housing topic, it encompasses a wide range of industries, including cement, consumer electronics, home finance, banks, electricity, steel, LPG, CNG, PNG, LNG providers, and so on.

The early signs of a turnaround are visible as the housing sales volume has witnessed a healthy growth of housing sales volume (across seven major cities). It has surged by 113 per cent on a Year-on-Year (YoY) basis, showcasing healthy recovery post lockdown. Moreover, under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) scheme, the residential sector is likely to receive a boost.

Chintan Haria, Head of Product Development and Strategy at ICICI Prudential AMC, on the product launch commented, “Housing as a theme, we believe is at the cusp of a strong cycle. India’s favourable demographics, growing middle-class population, increased urbanization, better affordability and lower home loan interest rates are creating a conducive environment for housing and allied themes. Moreover, the Government. has been trying to stimulate activity in the sector through various supportive measures like affordable housing, affordable rental housing complex (ARCH) scheme, increase in capex, stamp duty cuts, 100 per cent FDI for townships and settlements development projects to name a few. India being one of the fastest-growing economies should see strong demand for housing as was seen historically in other developed economies.”

According to the press release, the scheme's fund managers will be Sankaran Naren and Anand Sharma. The scheme's benchmark is the Nifty Housing Total Returns Index (TRI).