Aadhar Housing eyes 30% business from Gujarat in 2 yrs

Having forayed into Gujarat, Aadhar Housing Finance Ltd expects the state to contribute around 30 per cent of the company's total ticket size in terms of housing loans for lower income group (LIG) and economically weaker section (EWS) in next two years.

"Organised supply of low cost housing especially in the sub Rs 10 lakh range is better in Gujarat than other states. Of the total estimated organised 30,000 units in the country, 14,000 are in Gujarat. In next two years, we expect Gujarat to contribute 20-30 per cent of our total business," said Harshil Mehta, managing director and chief executive officer of Aadhar Housing Finance Limited.

The company announced launch of its operations in Gujarat to provide housing finance to the lower income segments whose monthly income is between Rs 5000 to Rs 25000. The company currently operates across 7 States namely Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal.

In Gujarat, initially Aadhar will operate from nine branches at Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat, Himmatnagar, Surendranagar, Nadiad, Vapi & Bhavnagar. The Company, further reaches and services 40 locations located in the tier 2 & 3 cities through a hub-n-spoke model.

"Gujarat is a high-potential State for low-cost housing, with the State government recently introducing the affordable housing policy by which 2.2 million new houses are proposed to be built in the next four years. Additionally, Gujarat has witnessed growth in the per capita income and people aspiring for a better life. Aadhar will provide customers easy access to home finance solutions to help them achieve their dream of a home, with a pan-Gujarat presence," said Mehta.

Aadhar offers an array of home loan products including home loans, home improvement loans, home extension loans, plot loans, self construction loans, loans against property and balance transfer and top ups and will gradually extend products as non-residential property loans. In home loan, Aadhar provides loans upto Rs 12 lakh not exceeding 80 per cent of the property cost for a maximum period of 20 years at an interest rate starting from 10.5 per cent.

Moreover, Aadhar also provides project loans essentially for development of low cost housing projects. Total corpus of Aadhar as of now stands at Rs 450 crore while so far it has sanctioned more than 12000 loan applications for 8330 customers. In Gujarat, in next one year, the company expects to garner 10 per cent of its total business from 10000 customers.

Established by Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL), Aadhar has seen IFC, a member of the World Bank group, pick up 20 per cent equity with an investment of $4,400,000 (Rs 20 crore) and DHFL Group has the remaining 80 per cent equity in Aadhar.

The flagship branch of Aadhar was launched in Lucknow in February 2011 and in the last three years of operations the company has strengthened its network to a total of 41 branches that reach out to over 165 locations across the seven identified states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal and are now delighted to now provide service in the Gujarat market.