Demand for Home Loans set to dip
According to RBI data, the growth in outstanding credit of banks, under priority sector housing loans, halved to 6.80 per cent in April, against 11.90 per cent in the year-ago period. SBI, the country’s largest public sector bank, expects a moderation in the growth in home loans. Close to 30 per cent of the home loan market in India is currently accounted for by the teaser home loan market, according to Monish Shah, director, Deloitte, India. “The withdrawal of teaser loans would have a marginal negative impact on the demand. After 2009, in the two-to three year period, the home loan growth was mostly seen in the teaser home loan segment. It gained about 20-30 per cent market share, which is an absolutely phenomenal growth,” said Shah.
High interest rates are also expected to play a dampener. “Demand for home loans is likely to be impacted due to high interest rates. The impact would be more visible in the next two months. Both investors and home loan buyers are likely to wait for few months before property buying. In the last one year, the burden of easy monthly installments for borrowers has gone up by 15-20 per cent,” said S L Bansal, executive director, United Bank of India.
Smaller banks expect a level-playing field after the exit of teaser home loans from the market. Allured by lower interest rates, several home loan customers had shifted to teaser loans. “Now, we hope our customers will remain with us. Earlier, we saw some customers moving to teaser home loans, said M Narendra, chairman and managing director, Indian Overseas Bank.
Rising property prices have also dented the prospects of robust home loan growth. The prices of residential property in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai saw prices rise 36 per cent in 2010 on good demand. The trend was reflected in loan disbursements for banks as well.
“A lot of factors would contribute to the slight slowdown in credit off-take. Affordability, interest rates and uncertainty in the real estate market are some of the reasons. So, going forward, there would be a slowdown in the home loan market for sure,” Deloitte’s Shah said.
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