Nitya Offers Free Rent for Afghanistan Refugees, Market briefs

In Houston, Nitya Capital, a Houston-based real estate firm led by Swapnil Agarwil, said it will provide six months of free rent to as many as 1,000 Afghanistan refugee families.

Nitya Capital owns 20,000 apartment units across the nation, in addition to a large portfolio of single-family homes, office buildings and retail centers.

“This opportunity is aimed to cultivate a sense of security and peace of mind for all refugees who may currently be experiencing challenging times in their lives, providing helpful, free resources as they recover from the ordeals of the international crisis,” Nitya Capital said in a press release.

Nitya Capital said it is in the midst of an aggressive purchase program with over $1 billion of deals in the pipeline for closings later this year.

Agarwal immigrated from India when he was 15 years old and settled in Houston with his working-class family, which could not afford a car.

As a youth, Agarwal worked delivering pizza flyers in the Westchase area. One of the buildings where he delivered the pizza flyers caught his attention, he says, and he gained the personal ambition to someday own the 12-story office tower. Last year the dream came true as Agarwal’s Nitya Capital purchased the 466,000-SF building, the One Westchase Center, 10777 Westheimer Road.

Nitya Capital reported in a Friday press release a record transaction volume of approximately $2.2 billion in 2021, resulting in its strongest year to date.

“We also continue to grow our portfolio with selective acquisitions of large, off-market portfolios, where we see opportunities to take advantage of bulk/discounted pricing,” said Agarwal. “Presently, we have approximately $1.1 billion of active deals in the pipeline, which will be closed by the end of this year.”

Agarwal added, “We are proud of what we have achieved thus far, and we look forward to continued growth and delivery of outsized returns for our investors.”

Agarwal, who also leads Karya Property Management, won the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2017.

Nitya Capital also owns the 200,000-SF Nitya Tower, formerly known as the Norfolk Tower, near the intersection of the Southwest Freeway at Greenbriar, in the Inner Loop

About a year ago, Nitya purchased the Chasewood Technology Park, a four-building office campus totaling 463,969 SF in northwest Houston. The seller was the GenCap Group.