ICICI Bank bets big on affordable housing; disburses loan to first time home buyers

New Delhi [India], Jan 23 (ANI): Private sector bank ICICI Bank on Tuesday announced that it has crossed a milestone of disbursing over Rs. 6700 crore in the last four years to first time home-buyers in the affordable housing segment.

Christened 'Pratham' loans, the bank has enabled more than 51,000 home buyers from the economically weaker section (EWS) and low income group (LIG) in the last four years to purchase their first home of upto Rs. 30 lakh.

"ICICI Bank is committed to support the socio-economic development of a larger section of the society. In line with this philosophy, we have focused on the affordable housing segment of upto Rs. 30 lakh to empower a larger section of the society to realize the dream of owning their first home. We are delighted to share that we have disbursed more than Rs. 6700 crore of 'Pratham' home loans in over 51,000 accounts in the affordable housing segment," said executive director ICICI Bank, Anup Bagchi.

"We have also enabled online sanction of these home loans through our website, without any need to visit a branch. With these initiatives in place, going forward, 'Pratham' loans will be a priority segment for us. Our focus on the affordable housing segment is also in line with the Government's vision to provide housing for all by 2022," said Anup Bagchi.

In a bid to focus on the affordable housing segment, in the last few years the bank has opened more than 100 new loan processing centers in tier II & III cities and micro-markets near large cities where affordable houses are being built. Additionally, it has also enabled the facility of fully online sanction of home loans from its website. Using this facility, customers can get online sanction within a few hours, without visiting the branch.

ICICI Bank has the largest mortgage portfolio among private sector banks in the country. In 2016, it crossed the milestone of cumulatively disbursing mortgage loans of over Rs. 1 trillion, a first among private sector banks in the country. It also launched a slew of digital initiatives to bring simplicity to the home loan process.

This includes home loans on tabs, Express Home Loans - fully online home loan approval in 8 working hours and subsequent disbursements for under construction projects via mobile app among others.

The amounts disbursed and numbers of accounts pertain to loan accounts disbursed in last four years (from FY15 to FY18 December 1, 2017)

The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana guidelines defines economically weaker section (EWS) as households having an annual income up to Rs. 3 lakh and low income group(LIG) as households having an annual income of above Rs. 3 lakh up to Rs. 6 lakh. (ANI)