India’s First Housing Price Index – NHB Residex – Launched

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on July 10has launched India’s first the official housing price index, called NHB Residex. The index, developed by National Housing Bank (NHB), has . The index has been introduced as a pilot in five cities –Mumbai, Bhopal, Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore. The index will cover different localities in each of the cities for five years. NHB is the regulator and apex bank for housing finance.

The index will track the movements of residential property prices and can be used to estimate house wealth, a measure hitherto not available in India. Bank and housing finance companies can also use it in portfolio evaluation and indirect security for their housing loans.

In the next phase, NHB the regulator will collect data indices for 35 cities/towns with a population of more than a million as per the 2001 census for creating indices. These indices are planned to be prepared on a half yearly basis.

Later on, the list will be expanded to cover 63 cities covered under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.