Poddar Developers - Atgaon - Navjeevan

Half page ad in the Hindustan Times (Mumbai edition) this morning re an approved project of MHFC - an affordable housing project by Poddar Developers  - "Navjeevan" at Atgaon (near Shahpur), under which 1 RK flats start at 7.8 lakhs and 1 BHK at 10.20 lakhs. 

For more information on the project, please see the company's website. 

For financing on this project, especially for informal sector customers who lack documentation to prove incomes, please email us on contact@mhfcindia.com OR call our Loan Officer for the project - Gulab Patil - on 9167220732 for further information on terms and conditions of MHFC (www.mhfcindia.com) financing. 

RBI guidelines for External Commercial Borrowings ("ECBs") - to finance low income housing

Further to the Ministry / Budget announcement earlier this year, the RBI has announced the specific ECB guidelines for low income housing developers, and housing finance companies (which on lend for individual housing loans less than 25 lakhs) - see links to news articles below

Economic Times article - Dec 17, 2012
Hindu article - Dec 18, 2012

RBI notification - Dec 17, 2012

RBI guidelines on Priority Sector Lending ("PSL")

major changes in yesterday's RBI notification re revised PSL guidelines - esp for Housing Finance Companies like MHFC - see below links for more information:

Business Standard news article
Hindu news article

and the detailed RBI notification itself

but in summary, all bank loans to housing finance companies ("HFCs") — approved by the NHB for their refinance — for on-lending for the purpose of purchase, construction and reconstruction of individual dwelling units subject to an aggregate loan limit of Rs.10 lakh per borrower, would come under priority sector lending.

we hope that this does have a big impact on lending by HFCs to weaker sections - for info, all loans granted by banks to MHFC for onlending will qualify for PSL lending - with sole focus on lower income (and typicaly informal sector) families, MHFC's cap on loan amount is in any case 10 lakhs (in fact average loan today is much lower at about 4.3 lakhs).  

ECBs for Housing Finance Companies

announcement re liberalising norms for External Commercial Borrowings ("ECBs") - see links to articles below - it seems that HFCs will be permitted to raise ECBs to finance low income housing projects.

Business Today article

Mint article