Budget

thoughts / quick summary on the budget impact on MHFC / affordable housing:

1. nothing in it for the private developers / financiers - no specific schemes / amendments to previous schemes

2. however, significant impact on govt schemes which directly and indirectly impact LIG / EWS housing:
(a) rural housing fund (run by the NHB) allocation to go up by Rs 2,000 cr - this is the refinance scheme which provides funds to HFCs at 8% - while all our loans would eventually qualify (since our suburban focus falls under rural), not sure how we will benefit as not sure what the availability of this resource will be after our qualification period (generally 2 years)
(b) JNNURM allocation to almost double to about Rs 12,800 cr - assuming this is 25% used for urban housing, this is about Rs 3200 cr - given that grant / subsidy for housing is normally capped at Rs 1.5 lakhs, I guess this can support about 200,000 homes - which is significant.
(c) Indira Aawas Yojana - this is aimed at rural housing - and allocation also increased (38%) to Rs 8800 cr - which is significant but not sure whether MHFC can access since mostly rural and very small ticket (Rs 25,000 loan size normally and house budget less than Rs 50,000 normally)

but the main announcement is the new scheme
(d) Rajiv Awas Yojana - for which details still awaited (and expected to come out on Aug 20) - which has recd funding of approx Rs 4000 cr and is aimed at urban low income housing - its expected to be on the lines of the JNNURM program - so a mix of grant (from Central Govt), land (from state govt) and loan (envisaged from the HFCs / banks which is where MHFC can play a role).

all in all, private developers might be disappointed by the budget, but for HFCs willing to partner with the states, there are possibiities