In a banking conclave organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, chairman and managing director S Sridhar of National Housing Bank (NHB) said that NHB is planning to raise Rs 11,000 crore this fiscal to meet the loan demands.   

The Centre is preparing a separate national rural housing policy. The final policy in this regard will be announced in August after discussions over the draft policy in the next month.

The number of people living in slum areas in cities has been increasing at a rapid pace and the maximum portion of them has been coming from the villages. This has necessitated the formation of a separate rural housing policy.

In regard to meet the loan demands, Sridhar said that they would raise Rs 3,000 crore through zero-coupon bonds and Rs 1,000 crore through retail deposits.

“We have the approvals for zero-coupon bonds,” Sridhar said.

In 2006-07, the housing finance regulator raised Rs 13,200 crore and 10,000 crore in 2007-08.  

NHB is planning to form a mortgage guarantee firm in three-four months (provided it gets the RBI’s go-ahead). The firm will be a joint venture between the regulator and United Guarantee Corp of the US. Other equity partners will be International Finance Corp (IFC) and Asian Development Bank.