HDFC eyes Rs 2,400 cr lending in Pb, Haryana, HP, Chandigarh

Housing finance major HDFC has said it aims to lend Rs 2,400 crore in current fiscal in Punjab, Haryana, UT Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh with main thrust being on aggressively lending to farmers to meet growing demand for housing in rural areas.

Despite "gloomy" real estate market in northern region, HDFC has planned to penetrate deeper by targeting tier II cities of two agrarian states of Punjab and Haryana where the demand for affordable housing is still going strong.

"We are targeting to disburse loans for housing to the tune of Rs 2,400 crore which is over 30 per cent more than what was disbursed last fiscal in our area comprising Punjab, Haryana, UT Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh," HDFC, Business Head, (Punjab, Haryana, HP) P C Srivastava said here.

HDFC disbursed loans amounting to Rs 1,800 crore in last fiscal in these areas.

Acknowledging that the real estate market is going through a rough patch in several urban parts of northern region, Srivastava said the HDFC is now aggressively looking to tap progressive farmers in rural areas for housing loans especially in Punjab and Haryana where the demand for housing projects still exists.

Private sector lender has specially developed a housing loan scheme Rural Housing Finance whereby loan will be disbursed to farmers including horticulturists, orchard owners etc after assessing their farm income.

"We have developed a successful model in which we assess farmer's income after considering his land holding (minimum 10 acres), crop yield and MSP of the crop and then after working out his income, loan is disbursed," he said adding that the default among farmers have been nil.

"We have plans to double our lending to Rs 200 crore to farmers in current fiscal," he said adding, "HDFC even offers concession on lending rate to farmer for buying rural property."

Observing that builders who earlier planned to launch their housing projects have deferred because of sluggish demand for real estate, Srivastava said because of lack demand and oversupply, there were no takers for several housing projects in and around Chandigarh.

"In tricity of Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali alone, not less than 70,000 units including flats and plots remain unsold," he said.

He hoped that the market is likely to see pick up in demand only near Diwali festival.