ATM :: Note ban gives banks an advantage in home loan market


MANJU AB | Fri, 13 Jan 2017-07:05am | Mumbai | DNA
With property valuation coming off, the attraction to shift to NBFCs for higher loan amount is also waning

ATM

Aggressive pricing of home loans by banks and higher income disclosures by customers after demonetization may see a shift of home loans from home finance companies (HFCs) to banks. With property valuation coming off, the attraction to shift to NBFCs for higher loan amount is also waning.

However, the HFCs say the market will expand as the income disclosures will go up and the secondary market, which was predominantly cash, will now go through the white economy, enabling banks and bigger HFCs to capture the market.

Keki Mistry, vice-chairman and chief executive officer, HDFC, told DNA Money, “The market size for home loans will expand as income disclosures will be higher and more customers will get bankable. The cost of funding for banks have certainly come down but no one is going to price a home loan based on temporary deposits like the savings deposits, as these savings deposits are now flowing into mutual funds, insurance and other higher yielding investments.”

Religare Securities said in a report that the ability to assess cash income and a high-risk appetite are key growth factors for NBFCs, “Now, some categories of borrowers whose disclosed income has risen after the note ban may become eligible for bank loans.”

Nearly 80% of the people buy homes directly from the primary market that is builders and most of them pay by cheque. The remaining 20% is the secondary market where cash is a predominant mode of payment.

“Now we can have access to that market as well as cash component is likely to be negligible, and hence the average loan size will go up if the entire value of the property is paid in cheque. Besides banks have CRR, SLR and priority sector that add to their cost. But certainly the silver lining is that due higher income disclosures and the so-called unproductive money moving into the white economy will improve prospects both for the primary and secondary markets,” Mistry said.

Analysts say that even HFCs, especially the larger ones, have seen a drop in their funding cost to the extent of 1% over the last six months.

Religare report said, “Direct selling agents have stated that valuers have reduced loan-to-value (LTV) ratios and raised the haircut assumptions on property value. Pre-demonetization, most balance transfers would take place between NBFCs and also from banks to NBFCs, in order to increase the loan amount or provide flexibility in loan repayment. This has come to a grinding halt as property valuations have come off. ”

Gagan Banga, vice chairman & managing director, Indiabulls Housing Finance, told DNA Money, “We deal with fully banked customers based on disclosed and reported income. Being AAA-rated allows us to borrow from the bond markets at very fine rates and that combined with our significantly lower cost income ratio letting us price loans across products including home loans and loan against property (LAP) on par with banks.”

In anticipation of the property prices correction, customers are going to keep away from purchases or take loans against property. The demand for home loans and also LAP is already slowing down. “The margin expansion story enjoyed by HFCs from lower borrowing costs and a richer loan mix is unlikely to be sustained,” the Religare report said.

Rating agency Icra said in a separate report, “Given that around 60% of the borrowings for HFCs are at fixed rates of interest, and the assets are largely on floating rate, it is likely to get impacted more on account of their relatively higher operating cost ratios.”

Source: https://goo.gl/7GPtWi

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