It’s belt-tightening time for home loan borrowers. Auto and consumer loans could also get costlier as the Reserve Bank of India, in an all-out attack on inflation, is tightening the noose around banks.

The National Housing Bank (NHB) is all set to come up with low-cost housing townships with modern amenities in urban areas. According to a rough estimate, the market size for the same will be around Rs 25,000 crore in a couple of years.

RBI has asked a host of uncomfortable questions to banks related to their real estate and home loans portfolio. The central bank has asked banks their opinion on whether they expect any correction in property prices.

This one will further discourage specialised housing players to lend to the commercial real estate sector.The National Housing Bank (NHB) has asked housing finance companies (HFCs) to make a general provision of 0.4% of their total outstanding non-housing loans

The Asian Development Bank (ADB), a member of the World Bank Group, has projected that India's GDP growth for the next fiscal year will moderate to 8 per cent and pick up to 8.3 per cent in 2008 despite easing inflation during this year.

Home loan transactions are falling sharply as much as 20%. With rising interest rates affordability has become an issue for homebuyers. Experts have been predicting a correction for long. But the first signs of that happening may now be visible.

BANKS are entering into bilateral deals, selling illiquid bonds to each other at high prices to improve the valuation of their debt portfolio. By doing so, they hope to reduce the extent of provisions required to be set aside for depreciation

are trying to shift their focus to low-cost housing. As per a tentative plan prepared by the National Housing Board (NHB), 450 square feet apartments, each costing Rs 4.50 lakh, would be built in metros for consumers belonging to the lower income group

Corporation Bank and one of its largest shareholders, Life insurance Corporation, have identified reverse mortgage and financial inclusion as new areas of business they would jointly work on. While Corporation Bank will provide reverse mortgage

The rising interest rates are expected to start denting profits of banks from the second quarter of 2007-08. The increase in equated monthly installments for home loans has generally outstripped increase in salaries of individual borrowers over the last one year.

Real estate investors worried by corrections in property prices can afford to breathe easy. If a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) survey on property prices is to be believed, prices will rise by 10-15 per cent over the next 4-6 months across

RISING INTEREST rates apart, fear of falling real estate prices leading to default risks is leading to banks keep away from fresh sanctions of home loans. The risk associated with home loans has gone up substantially in the recent past.

Individual borrowers have probably seen the sharpest-ever annual increase in interest costs since January 2006, with rates rising 300 basis points. Home loan takers have felt the pinch the most, as nearly 90 per cent of incremental borrowings are floating rate loans

In A desperate attempt to beef up their balance sheet before the year-end, banks are out-bidding each on deposit rates. Those with large cash reserves to be parked in deposits are making the best of the situation by holding auctions and pitting banks against each other.

Banks have reduced their pace of providing home loans. The latest figures by RBI reveal that from October 2005 to October 2006, banks granted Rs 51,191 crore as home loans as compared to Rs 60, 495 crore from June 2005 to June 2006.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked several leading banks to furnish data on the number of borrowers who have bought second or third home, how many them belong to the salaried class and the default levels in home loans.

The country’s largest mortgage finance company HDFC has raised rates by 75 to 100 basis points. While rates for customers seeking fixed loans have risen by 100 basis points, existing and new borrowers on floating rates will pay 75 basis points more.

The recent appeal by finance minister P Chidambaram in the meeting of PSU bankers to spare any home loan hike suggested that the government does not want to lay any extra burden on home buyers. The FM categorically asked public sector banks to hold in