 "Sunita Sharma")
Speaking to reporters after inaugurating the company's property fair Ungal Illam 2016, she said, "We are now seeing lot of traction in the development of affordable housing. The supply of affordable housing will increase, which will be a boost to the housing finance industry".
She said that the company is seeing an increased interest from the developers in building affordable houses, starting from last year and this is a positive sign in growth in supply. As far as demand is concerned, there has always been a demand for affordable housing, though supply was not adequate to meet this demand.
The average ticket size of the company's loans is around Rs 19 lakh and in that sense, almost all of its lending is in the affordable housing segment.
The company has also been working with the government on the housing for all scheme Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, which has also boosted the growth of supply in the affordable segment. She said that the average ticket size of an affordable house would be around Rs 12 lakh. LIC Housing Finance is the only company among the total of around 57 housing finance firms in the country, which has received over 10 per cent share of the scheme, she added.
Commenting on the plans in borrowing, she said that the company's borrowings would be around Rs 50,000 crore this year, as against around Rs 40,000 crore during last year. It has recently announced plans to raise around Rs 1000 crore through masala bonds, and she said that it would take some time for the money to be raised. The company's total business was at around Rs 34,000 crore as at the end of March, 2016. It is expecting the disbursements to grow around Rs 20 per cent during the year.
Ungal Illam 2016, which is the 19th edition of the property fair in Chennai, is expected to bring in a business of around Rs 250 crore, as compared to the almost Rs 150 crore business it brought in during the last edition, in 2015, she said.
