Mint Article - Affordable Housing to get boost

Interesting article this morning (July 24, 2013) on possible government measures to stimulate low income housing -  acc to the report, the govt plans to allocate Rs 35,000 over 4 years to implement 3 programes related to low income housing including

- a scheme for rehabilitation of slum dwellers ;
- a scheme for providing interest rate subsidies on housing loans; and
- a scheme for helping private sector developers in this space (which includes fast track approvals, tax concessions, service tax exemptions etc)

The proposals are expected to get cabinet clearance within a month - for more details see link below:

Mint article - July 24, 2013

Latest CARE credit rating - July 22, 2013

CARE reaffirms "BBB" rating for MHFC - for an enhanced amount of Rs 100 cr (previous rating was for Rs 50 cr) long term debt - see link below for more details:

CARE Press Release - July 22, 2013

MHADA Lottery 2013

MHADA 2013 lottery winners of 1244 flats were announced today - out of 87,647 valid applications received (an average of 70 applicants per apartment) - please see below link to MHADA website for details.

MHADA website with lottery details

As already discussed in earlier posts, MHADA is an automatically approved developer for MHFC. Hence, for housing loans (of max 10 lakhs) on MHADA flats, but only to buyers who are from the informal sector (those lacking salary slips or income tax returns to prove incomes) or financially excluded (who cannot get loans from other housing finance companies easily) - please contact us on 22660427 / 0069 or email us on contact@mhfcindia.com (website www.mhfcindia.com).

MHADA sanctions 2736 affordable homes for Mumbai

MHADA budget announced today - to build 2736 low cost homes in Mumbai - and also has received sanction to buy land in Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad and Amravati - see below link to 2 articles for more details.

HT article - March 8, 2013 - MHADA 2736 low cost homes
HT article - March 8, 2013 - MHADA could build 40,000 houses

As already discussed in earlier posts, MHADA is an automatically approved developer for MHFC. Hence, for housing loans (of max 10 lakhs) on MHADA flats, but only to buyers who are from the informal sector (those lacking salary slips or income tax returns to prove incomes) or financially excluded (who cannot get loans from other housing finance companies easily) - please contact us on 22660427 / 0069 or email us on contact@mhfcindia.com (website www.mhfcindia.com).

Budget 2013 - proposals related to low income housing

There seems to be very little in the 2013 Budget proposals which affect low income housing (developers / financing) - in fact just three specific items: 

• Increase in allocation to the Rural Housing Fund ("RHF") from Rs 4000 crore to Rs 6000 crore;
• New Urban Housing Fund ("UHF") to be set up with Rs 2000 cr; 
both the above schemes to be administered by the NHB (as refinance schemes). 

RHF increase (and possibly the new UHF) will help MHFC - as all our loans are less than 10 lakhs and generally to weaker sections (same objective as the RHF and possibly the UHF).

and 
• Increase in the tax deduction on interest paid on housing loans (to 2.5 lakhs - from current 1 lakh) on home loans less than 25 lakhs

also see Mint article - Feb 28, 2013 for sops to the sector