NHB Residex to cover 63 cities by next year

NHB Residex to cover 63 cities by next year
The Hindu Business Line, September 7, 2009, Page 1

K. R. Srivats, New Delhi

National Housing Bank (NHB) aims to cover all cities with population of over 1 million under its NHB Residex, which is the country’s first official residential property price index.

Currently, the NHB Residex gives relative movement of residential property prices in different localities in 15 cities.

“By next year (December-end 2010), we want to cover 63 cities — all cities with over 1 million population,” Mr S. Sridhar, Chairman of NHB, told Business Line here.

He also said that NHB Residex will, from now on, be available on a half-yearly basis. The values for the index are derived from the market, and not from Government data.

Valuation norms

Meanwhile, NHB is in the process of developing valuation standards for residential properties to ensure some uniformity in valuations. “There have been wrong practices in the valuation of property that have led to frauds in the banking system. We are trying to plug them by adopting new standards of valuation. It is still work-in-progress,” Mr Sridhar said at the Annual Finance Summit of International Management Institute here.

Pending regulatory action by the Government, bankers will use only valuers who conform to the standards issued by the Indian Banks’ Association, Mr Sridhar said. He also expressed confidence that the banking industry would be able to adopt these standards by the end of this year.