HDFC corners 15% of CLSS housing market with Rs 67,000 crore loans

With over Rs 7,200 crore in subsidy disbursals, the largest pure-play mortgage lender HDFC has cornered over 15 per cent of the credit-linked subsidy scheme for affordable housing since its launch in June 2016.

The 45-year-old Corporation, which is awaiting a reverse merger with its subsidiary HDFC Bank, has also won the best housing finance company award from the government for this for the third time this year.

Its Managing director Renu Sud Karnad said they have over 3.13 lakh credit linked subsidy scheme (CLSS) customers, who have cumulatively borrowed more than Rs 67,000 crore from them since the launch of the plan under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).

These customers have received more than Rs 7,200 crore in subsidies, which is a tad over 15 per cent of the total subsidy of Rs 48,250 crore given by the government.

The corporation has been awarded the best performing housing finance company under the CLSS and the same was given away by Union Housing Minister Hardeep Singh Puri in Rajkot last night, Karnad said in a statement on Thursday.

It can be noted that poll-bound Gujarat has become the best-performing state under the scheme in terms of the number of borrowers.

HDFC in July 2018 won the best-performing primary lending institution in the EWS and LIG segments and the second-best in the MIG segment under the scheme. In March 2019, it was also awarded the best private sector financial institution under this.

Karnad expects affordable housing to continue to drive the real estate sector as there is a strong structural demand for housing due to better affordability, government incentives, favourable demographics, increasing urbanisation and rising aspirations to own a house.

She has also noted a paradigm shift among customers across all segments applying online, which has enabled HDFC to assist over 3 lakh customers under the PMAY, especially during the pandemic. As result, today over 92 per cent of new loan applications received are through digital channels, which was less than 20 per cent before the pandemic.

Over the past 45 years, HDFC has funded more than 95 lakh homes. It has 695 offices in the country and also in London, Dubai and Singapore.