LIC Housing sanctions ₹600-cr for realty sector

The housing finance subsidiary of Life Insurance Corporation of India, LIC Housing, has taken the lead and financed ₹600 crore in the last few months to at least five developers including Shriram Properties, Vatika Group and Radiance Realty, data collated by data intelligence provider Propstack showed this trend. These range from fresh disbursals to refinance deals where the mortgage lender has taken over loans from other lenders. LIC Housing Finance sanctioned ₹225 crore to Shriram Properties as construction finance at a floating rate of 13.25%. At least ₹65 crore of it will be used to take over an existing loan from Yes Bank. The lender also disbursed about ₹54 crore to Vatika Group for making part payment of an Indiabulls Housing loan. It sanctioned ₹108 crore to Radiance Realty in September for two projects, at an interest rate of 13%. At least ₹46 crore will be used to refinance loans disbursed by Kotak Mahindra Prime and Kotak Mahindra Investments. It sanctioned ₹116 crore to Concast Infrastructure at 12.5% and ₹100 crore to DN Homes. The loan sanctions to builders are being executed on a case-to-case basis depending upon merits, and some of them are existing customers to the lender. The company has been very selective in lending to builders and exercising due diligence on the projects being taken up for funding. Its confidence comes from the overall viability of the project after taking into account the sales velocity, credential of the developer, adequacy of the security, marketability of the project, cash flows and strength of other collaterals.