The share of housing finance companies in the mortgage market has risen to 37% from 30% in 2010, according to ICRA, a unit of ratings company Moody's. NHB is the nodal agency for the scheme.Even global funds such as Carlyle and TPG have acquired stakes in housing finance companies such as PNB Housing and ICICI Home Finance, encouraged by the move to digitize land records and the government's focus on housing for all. MUMBAI: While much attention has been focused on new bank licences, some high-profile names are looking to enter a segment thats not attracted as much interest -housing finance. "The advent of credit bureaus has enabled the housing finance companies to sort of create a segmental underwriting model based on the customer's profile," said Kalyanaraman.While financial services are in general bogged down by bad loans, housing finance has the lowest level of defaults in finance industry.Here's a look at the gross non-performing asset (NPA) ratio at three big mortgage companies: *Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC): 0.7% *Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd: 0.9% *Dewan Housing Finance Corp.: 0.8%.The low level of bad loans, high returns on assets and equity and high growth are the prime reasons attracting investors to the sector.The potential is vast, given the shortage. The shortage of urban housing is estimated at 18.78 m units and that of rural housing at 43.67 m, according to the working group report on housing for 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17).

Source: Economic Times July 04, 2016 02:42 UTC