Long-term Growth Outlook Positive for Affordable Housing

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Amid conditions of business de-growth for the housing finance companies (HFC)s, the affordable housing finance companies (AHFC)s have been continued to grow, albeit at a slower pace. As per the latest ICRA report, the total portfolio of the new AHFCs in the affordable housing space stood at Rs. 55,061 crore as on September 30, 2020 and registered a moderate year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth of 9% compared to sector’s overall negative growth. Although the growth is much lower than the 3-year average of over 30%, as per the ratings agency, the long-term growth outlook for AHFC remains favourable, supported by several factors. At this current size, AHFCs accounted for around 5% of the overall Indian HFC market as on September 30, 2020. Over the last decade, several new players have emerged in the housing finance space, focusing primarily on the affordable housing segment. The property cost in this segment is usually below Rs. 20 lakh and borrowers have relatively low income and usually do not have any formal income proof. Earlier, most large players did not cater to this segment. However, over the last couple of years, even large HFCs have set up dedicated verticals focused on the affordable housing segment. While banks are also present in the smaller-ticket home loan market, their lending to the economically weaker section (EWS) and low-income group (LIG) segments and borrowers without any formal income proof is limited. These specialised HFCs are trying to tap this underserved market segment. As for the key parameters, the asset quality indicators for AHFCs registered a marginal improvement with a reported gross NPA% of 3.1% as on September 30, 2020 (3.6% as on March 31, 2020), supported by the standstill on the bucket movement during March 2020-August 2020 and the adjustment of the EMIs received during the moratorium period against past overdues. Nevertheless, the asset quality numbers remained weaker than the industry levels (2.40% as on September 30, 2020), reflecting the inherent weakness associated with the segment. However, adjusting for two AHFCs who have higher NPAs, the gross NPA%/Stage 3% was lower than the gross NPA% of all HFCs at 1.5% as on September 30, 2020, but comparable to the gross NPA% of 1.4% for the home loan segment of all HFCs. This was partly attributable to the relatively lower portfolio seasoning and the higher share of home loans in the portfolio of AHFCs compared with larger peers. On the funding side, these entities were traditionally dependent on the banking channel and larger non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) for meeting their funding requirements. However, in H1 FY2021, the share of funding from capital markets in the form of non-convertible debentures (NCDs) and National Housing Bank (NHB) refinance increased to about 36% of the total borrowings as on September 30, 2020 primarily driven by special funding schemes of NHB to support the liquidity of HFCs and the targeted long-term repo operations (TLTROs) of the RBI. The liquidity profile of these entities is also supported by their relatively moderate gearing and substantial balance sheet liquidity (~13% of total assets as on September 30, 2020). While the net interest margins (NIMs) of these AHFCs were largely stable in H1FY2021 and the operating ratios moderated due to lower business-related expenses owing to the lockdowns, the lower fee income due to curtailed loan originations and income from direct assignment (DA) transactions led to stable profitability (return on assets (RoA) of 2.3% for H1 FY2021).