Home Loan Providers in India

Real estate in India is currently one of the hottest investments options in Asia. A recent survey of the real estate scenario acknowledge the Indian metropolis of Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi as the top three investors' choices for real estate investment in Asia. But there were concerns mainly related to the availability of necessary funds for investment and in the more recent times, the boom in the real estate market opened the doors for a host of realty funds from financial institutions. Prior to five years, the real estate segment in India was neither organized nor were there too many large institutions in the construction industry. But now with an organized finance sector and with the increase in transparency levels, it has become easier to create financing vehicles. The decrease in housing loan interest rates and an increase of disposable income has contributed largely to an increased demand in the residential segment. In spite of a rise in home loans interest rates and qualitative sanctions being levied by the RBI on banks, buying interest has not waned because home loans are still cheaper than ten years ago. The retail markets are also undergoing a defining change with the introduction of larger retailing formats. The financial institutions also wasted no opportunity in tapping the fund requirement catering to the inflow of potential buyers in the retail sector. While most funds were initially floated by financial Institutions or banks such as HDFC, ICICI Bank and IDBI Bank to name a few, real estate developers like DLF Universal and even retailers such as Pantaloons Retails (India) have now entered the real estate sector for creating more retail facilities and have been hugely successful. As the realty prices in India skyrockets, housing complexes mushrooming and city landscapes becoming unrecognizable, the growth across all real estate segments and experts estimate that demand will remain steady at the currently high levels because of the improving economic environment and the real estate sector is expected to grow 30% every year. This rising property prices encourage banks and financial institutions to lend more with the increase in collateral values. Although the home loan providers have hiked their rates twice in less than three months, home loans continue to be nearly 45 per cent cheaper than what they were in early 2001. Because if statistics are referred to, the interest rates which now range between 9-10 per cent, are still much lower than what they were ten years ago, at 16-17 per cent. In addition to funds being raised by the Indian financial institutions like HDFC, ICICI and IDFC abroad, the money could be used to develop business and IT parks and townships. A study has revealed that as many as one million homes are financed every year in India now with an estimated home mortgages market of US$ 10.7 billion - contributing to India's phenomenal realty prospect