According to the reports from the National Housing Bank (NHB) chairman and managing director, Mr.R.V. Verma, today said there has been a slowdown in the growth of housing loan uptake due to higher interest rates and rising property prices. He said that the housing finance loans have witnessed 25% growth each year for four consecutive years before the slowdown began.
He said that during the four years prior to the 2008 crisis, housing loan portfolio for housing finance companies grew 25%. In 2009-10, it grew 19% and in 2010-11 it grew 16-17%. He also said that the demand for home loan will go down further if there is further hike in the interest rates. NHB said that it was not planning for any hike in its interest rates in the near future. It has raised its prime lending rates to 10.5% from 10.25% three months back and has no plans to further hike rates.
RBI raised key interest rates in May this year by 50 basis points to battle high inflation, its ninth rate hike since March 2010. He added saying that the company has given out nearly Rs12, 000-crore as of now.