HDFC Launches its Operations in London, UK

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India , 2006-11-14

Indians in England can now look forward to owning a piece of their motherland. In an endeavour to facilitate the Indians in England acquire property in India, Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited (HDFC) has launched its operations in London. It will provide advisory services on housing finance and property acquisition in India. HDFC’s office will be located at 403, 1 Northumberland Avenue Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5BW.

Commenting on this occasion Mr Keki Mistry, Managing Director, HDFC said, “The buoyancy in Indian economy, coupled with the recent Real-Estate boom is attracting a large number of Indian’s abroad to invest in a property in India. It is estimated that the total Asian Population in the UK is around 3.5% of which over 1.8% are Indians, with London having the largest concentration. This new office will provide us an excellent strategic position in assisting Indians in owning a property in their home land.”

Ms. Renu Sud Karnad, Executive Director, HDFC added, “Our presence in UK comes at an appropriate time when Indian real-estate is on an upswing. With twenty-nine years of existence in the industry, HDFC has gained an in-depth knowledge of the real estate market, and the expertise to guide customers through their entire property buying process. Now Indians based here can avail of our services, whether it is assistance in property search, builder credibility evaluation, expert advice on the legal processes, technical evaluation of the property, or with their home loan requirements. Our endeavour is to empower customers to make a more informed decision while buying the property.”

HDFC, set up in 1977, is India's premier housing mortgage company, which has turned the dream of owning a home into a reality for millions of Indians. It defined standards in the housing sector, be it in processes, service or product innovations and has grown to provide not just finance but also complete solution to the customers’ housing requirements. Its strength has been its pioneering value-added services, with a specialist team of trained staff that empathises with customers and offers free counselling and legal assistance for a variety of individual housing needs, while ensuring that customer interests are protected.

HDFC has grown from a humble beginning of Rs 71 million (GBP 8,33,000) in home-loan approvals in its first year of its operations to over Rs 1,272 billion (GBP 15.14 billion), as of Sept. 2006 in cumulative home-loan approvals. The organization has assisted 2.9 million families in owning their own Home, while maintaining gross NPAs at less than 1% - the lowest in the industry. Asset per employee has grown from Rs. 69 million in 1995 to Rs. 381 million in 2006 and the cost income ratio has gone down from 22.3% in 1995 to 12.2% in 2006 and is among the lowest in the financial sector in Asia. The market capitalization is over Rs 388 billion (GBP 4.62 billion). Foreign Institutional Investors hold over 79.58 % of equity in HDFC, the highest for any Indian company.

Service excellence and customer convenience has always been the guiding philosophy for HDFC. Its specialised team of trained counselors provides the customers expert advice on legal & technical aspect of property buying, liaison with property developers to locate the ideal property anywhere in the country, assist in making the right choice in determining the financing mix / products and hand-holding the customer through the whole transaction of property purchase. The company has developed advanced capabilities in the area of processing loan applications. It has a wide network over 228 outlets reaching out to 2500 towns and cities across India. Internationally HDFC has been present in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar. providing seamless service across geographical boundaries.

HDFC has grown phenomenally and has transformed into a financial conglomerate. It has diversified into banking with HDFC Bank, life insurance - HDFC Standard Life Insurance in association with Standard Life Assurance of UK, general insurance - HDFC Chubb General Insurance with Chubb Corporation of USA, asset management - HDFC Asset Management Company with Standard Life Investments of UK, BPO - Intelenet Global Services with Barclays Plc of UK, credit bureau - CIBIL and real estate venture capital - HDFC Venture Capital Limited. The HDFC group has assets of over Rs.1,500 billion (GBP 17.86 billion) and a customer base of over 12 million. Today, the brand HDFC has evolved to become a household name in India.

Additional information on the Indian real estate scenario

The $12 billion Indian real estate sector has been on a high growth trajectory increasing at a rate of about 30% a year. The realty sector, which now contributes 14-15 percent of the country's GDP, is estimated to emerge a $50 billion industry by 2010 and prove one of the most attractive sectors for foreign investments. Rising incomes, easy financing terms, sustained high GDP growth, consumerism, favourable demographics, rapid urbanisation and population growth are driving demand for housing in India, and luring overseas investors. Realty funds are making a beeline for the Indian real estate sector, where the total quantum of funds entering the sector over the next 2-3 years is upwards of $12.25 billion.

On the other hand, the Indian government has been initiating favourable policy/regulatory changes and measures to transform the realty sector to an improved playing field. This includes rationalisation of stamp duty; computerisation of land records, unlocking of land parcels, liberalisation of investment norms, relaxation in FDI regulations, approving mutual funds to invest in real estate, the guidelines of which are under preparation and it is also expected that the structure for real estate investment trusts (REITs) will be introduced in the country in the near future.

Further, the government is planning on spending over Rs 1,000 billion on urban development schemes in the next six years as the urban population has increased to 30 percent from 15 percent and is expected to increase to 45 percent by 2021. This is impacting the housing market growth and the trend is moving to sub-urbanisation, with the real estate development percolating down to tier-II and tier-III cities.

In the midst of all this, India’s real estate industry is moving towards more professionalism and transparency. An international study on Real Estate Transparency Index for 2006 had a word of praise for realty markets in India, which has exhibited improvement in transparency and moved up by one tier. In addition, rating agencies (CRISIL & ICRA) have launched systems for rating real estate projects & developers in India and the urban development ministry is planning to create a statutory regulator for the real estate sector where a real estate commission will be set up to frame guidelines and a code of conduct for property dealers.

Moreover strong competition among property developers, access to global technology has improved the quality of projects and consumers are getting quality housing with a range of amenities.
Contact

Arijit Sanyal, Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited, + 44 (0) 2078725542/ + 44 (0) 7894230870
[email protected]