CHENNAI: Even as interest rates are inching up and inflation soaring, the LIC Housing Finance Company is confident of growing ahead of the industry's average growth rate, a top company official here said.


Interacting with the media here after inaugurating a housing exhibition Friday, R.R. Nair, CEO LIC Housing, said: "This year, too, we are seeing better growth. Last year, we grew 38 percent when the whole industry logged just 9 percent growth."

For the current fiscal, LIC Housing is targeting disbursement of Rs.100 billion - up by Rs.10 billion over the previous fiscal.

According to Nair, the company's lending rates are linked to the prime lending rate (PLR) of banks.

"We have increased our lending rate just by 50 basis points in the recent times," he added.

Nair does not foresee higher defaults owing to increasing interest rates.

He said the housing market is currently active with serious buyers with speculators receding for now.
According to another official, the demand for premium-end apartments is slowing down while the mid-segment apartments continue to move.

Looking at the project financing, he said the company's project funding is just 5 per cent of its overall book size.
Last year, the company funded projects to the tune of Rs.13 billion.