Dec quarter saw rise in home loan delinquencies: CRIF High Mark

CRIF High Mark, however, mentioned that active housing loan borrower base has witnessed a growth during the December quarter.

Credit bureau CRIF High Mark, in its quarterly report, on Wednesday said that delinquencies in the housing loan book of banks as well as NBFCs increased during the third quarter of the last financial year (Q3FY21). The report said that delinquencies in the housing loan book increased 23 basis points (bps) year-on-year (y-o-y) to 2.49%. These are the accounts where instalments were due for more than 90 days (90+ DPD). The report from the credit bureau comes at a time when lenders are likely to face more stress in their loan book due to second wave of Covid-19.

The highest stress was seen in the small ticket housing loans below Rs 5 lakh. While housing finance companies (HFCs) faced 7.84% delinquencies, public sector banks saw 6.3% loans under stress during Q3FY21. Similarly, private banks were dealing with 5.28% delinquencies in the same period. The credit bureau also analysed delinquencies based on locations. The housing loan delinquencies of borrowers in the metro cities rose 21 bps y-o-y to 2.4%. However, in tier 2 cities delinquencies dipped 33 bps y-o-y to 3.27%.

CRIF High Mark, however, mentioned that active housing loan borrower base has witnessed a growth during the December quarter. The active housing loan borrower base as of December 2020 registered a 5% growth, compared to pre-pandemic levels of December 2019. The third quarter of last fiscal (Q3FY21) witnessed 28% quarter-on-quarter growth in disbursements compared to 6% growth in the same period in 2019-20.

Vipul Jain, head of products, CRIF High Mark, said: “Almost 50% of all loans sourced in the year was in the last three months of 2020.” Affordable Housing (loans up to Rs 35 lakh) contributed to 82% of sourcing volumes with growth driven by Tier II and Tier III cities, he added.