To  discuss the prevailing conditions, immediate challenges and the prospects of growth in mid and long-term housing demand, IMGC and CNBC-TV18 held the second edition of the India Mortgage Leadership Conclave (IMLC) in Mumbai, where relevant stakeholders from the housing finance industry came together and spoke at length about the present and the future around theme Housing Finance: The Next Growth Opportunity.

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In his welcome address, Mahesh Misra, CEO, India Mortgage Guarantee Corporation (IMGC), spoke about measures for reviving housing finance’s sector growth, government and regulator’s initiatives to improve the conditions, including other touchpoints.1

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During the conclave, Amitabh Chaudhry, MD& CEO, Axis Bank said that both housing and real estate were extremely important sectors as they set the trend for economic growth, adding that as employment and consumption levels go up, the demand for housing goes up as well.2

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During his keynote address, HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh shared his positive outlook of the Indian housing finance industry and spoke about liquidity crisis, trust deficit in the lending ecosystem, risk averseness of lenders affecting last mile funding for good developers, including other areas of concern.

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• 1. “We have had five rate cuts in last 12 months. Housing finance regulation has converged with the Reserve Bank of India and it has two sets of benefits. Firstly, we can expect a more consistent, uniform regulation, which is likely to create a level-playing field with 58% of mortgage originations being done by banks, there was a case for regulation to move to the RBI. Secondly, this also leaves NHB with a far greater bandwidth to play the sponsor role for development of the housing finance sector and we already have a slew of government initiatives where NHB is the principal anchor,” he said.

  He also lauded the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), adding that the top five lenders were optimistic about growth in affordable housing.

• 2. “While India’s GDP could increase by two-fold to $5trillion in the coming decade, which the government is aiming for, the housing finance industry, we believe, has to grow at a much faster pace. So, the question is whether India ready to witness the growth in the housing sector? India is very well poised to see major growth in housing finance in the coming decade,” he said.