PNB Housing Finance Ask Developers to Start Selling

With economic activity gradually improving post lockdown, PNB Housing Finance is closely monitoring the inventory levels of builders and asking them to start selling as demand for home loans is nearly getting back to normal, its MD and CEO Hardayal Prasad said. “Economic activity is still at a low ebb, but it has started picking up. The economic activity in certain areas is obviously returning back to pre-COVID days, I would say. When we talk to the builders and our sales team and people who are on the ground, who go and talk to the consumers and prospective borrowers, there are green shoots that we are seeing everywhere,” Prasad told. “The kind of enquiries that we used to get at one point of time, we are already almost at about 80-85 percent of the pre-COVID level. Besides, many builders are coming up with attractive offers like free parking, other incentives and even zero stamp duty in some states. These are pretty good offers, there are pretty good buys that are taking place, the numbers are going up. The projects those are 70-75 percent complete, these are the ones that are actually selling from the shelves. There is large inventory also in the country, so everybody is trying to sell wherever (feasible). “We have corporate finance, we have construction finance. We are asking all builders to bring in the inventory and start selling it so that our loans also can get repaid,” Prasad said. PNB Housing Finance is closely monitoring inventory levels of builders, Prasad said, adding that people are now willing to buy projects that are almost 70 percent complete. However, new projects or those where less than 70 percent work is completed are not garnering the interest of buyers.