NHB for separate body to handle mortgage loans

National Housing Bank (NHB), which regulates and lends to housing finance institutions, said it was in talks with Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), an association of banks and financial institutions, to set up a joint body that would handle technical issues regarding mortgage loans.

The proposed body would also develop a uniform standard for the valuation of housing loans, said S Sridhar, CMD of NHB, at a conference here.

The new body would also appoint independent mortgage counsellors, who will “educate and help” prospective home buyers, Sridhar said during his address at the conference on housing finance organised by NHB, IBA and the Consumer Association of India. NHB, a regulator for 43 housing finance companies in the country, would train the mortgage counsellors, who can be chartered accountants, bank managers, insurance advisors or “anyone who has financial background”, he said. The counsellors will be paid by home buyers for their services, said Sridhar.

He added that NHB was also planning to float a mortgage depository system. He said the National Mortgage Depository System would help arrest “double financing on the same property”. “This will also make the industry more transparent,” he said. Initially, all banks would be linked to the system. Later, all state governments would be connected to it in a phased manner, Sridhar added.