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Banks have reduced their pace of providing home loans. The latest figures by RBI reveal that from October 2005 to October 2006, banks granted Rs 51,191 crore as home loans as compared to Rs 60, 495 crore from June 2005 to June 2006.

HFCs or Housing finance companies have also reported a decline in disbursal. In the fiscal 2005-06, HFCs disbursed a total sum of around Rs 27,412 crore as housing finance. On the other hand, the amount was approx Rs 26,043 crore in the fiscal 2004-05. According to the latest annual report of National Housing Bank (NHB), in 2005-06, the total disbursement by SCBs (scheduled commercial banks) was nearly Rs 58,623 crore as compared to Rs 50,398 crore in 2004-05.

This indicates that the total growth in housing loan during the period 2005-2006 was just 12.55%. Housing finance companies grew at a rate of 5.26% while banks showed a growth rate of 16.32% as compared to last years’ 25-30%.

TS Bhattacharya, Managing Director, State Bank of India, viewed in news published in The Economic Times, “This is not a comfortable situation for the economy as a whole. A lesser growth in personal loan and home loan segments indicates a lower consumption level and a slowdown in construction activities. This is bound to affect the economic growth adversely”.

Also, lending for individuals is not an ‘affordable’ affair any more as banks have also increased their lending rates. It goes with housing finance too. Both specialized housing finance operators and banks have taken their loan rates for home loans a few scores higher over the past twelve months.

However, the demand for home loans will not sag much. The reason is a substantial rise in the income-generating capability of Indian youth. So this particular section will keep the housing loan demand high and increased lending rates can only shelve their plans for some time. RNCOS report “Opportunities in Indian Housing Sector (2006-2007)” says that easy availability of home loans has been a major growth-fuelling factor in Indian housing sector, despite the recent hike in interest rates.

The research report also discusses the outlook of Indian housing sector, role of housing finance companies, growth of housing finance market, housing finance disbursements, and housing loan disbursements by public sector banks.

For more information visit:http://www.rncos.com/Report/IM076.htm