Housing loans rise 15 pc despite high-interest rates

Mumbai: Housing loans outstanding rose 15 per cent year-on-year to a record Rs.19.36 lakh crore at March-end, notwithstanding the Reserve Bank's rate hike spree since May last year, showed central bank data released on Friday.

The housing loan outstanding at March-end 2022 was Rs 16.84 lakh crore, a growth of 12.9 per cent year-on-year. The loan outstanding for housing (including priority sector housing) was Rs 14.92 lakh crore in March 2021.

The Reserve Bank has hiked the benchmark rate by 250 basis points since May 2022, leading to a firming up of interest rates on all loans, including for purchasing residential properties.

Releasing the data on 'Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit – March 2023', the central bank said personal loans registered a growth of 20.6 per cent (year-on-year) in March 2023 compared to 12.6 per cent a year ago, primarily driven by ‘housing loans'.

The personal loans segment includes consumer durables, housing, advances against fixed deposits, credit card outstanding, education and vehicle loans.

The data also revealed that credit to industry registered a growth of 5.7 per cent (y-o-y) in March 2023 from 7.5 per cent in March 2022.

Size-wise, credit to large industries rose by 3 per cent compared to 2 per cent a year ago. Credit growth of medium industries was 19.6 per cent against 54.4 per cent. Credit to micro and small industries registered a growth of 12.3 per cent in March 2023 against 23.0 per cent.

The RBI said loans to agriculture and allied activities rose by 15.4 per cent (y-o-y) in March 2023 from 9.9 per cent.

Data on sectoral deployment of bank credit for March 2023 is collected from 40 select scheduled commercial banks, accounting for about 93 per cent of the total non-food credit deployed by all banks.