India’s Top 500 Companies 2022

INDIA’S TOP 500 COMPANIES 2022 40 Experts’ View HDFC is the largest housing finance company in the country. What are the key factors that gives HDFC an edge over its competitors? What is HDFC’s success mantra? HDFC has always been a customer-centric company and have looked at building long-term customer relationships. We have been open to ideas and feedback from customers, employees, critics and well-wishers. Our experience gained over the last 45 years has helped us to build models and systems which assists our frontline staff to counsel and guide customers, which is a differentiating factor that HDFC is well known for. Customers come to us because we not just offer home loans but also brings value addition to the table. We are a specialized and focused home loan provider. We provide our customers the benefit of our experience, be it while choosing a builder or a property or guiding on the documentation or the loan options. Home loan is not just about money but a whole lot of things that goes to make the experience of buying a house a memorable one for customers. We have seen robust recovery in the real estate sector which plays vital role in the economy. What is your outlook on this sector? Demand for housing in India continues to remain robust. We are seeing strong pipeline of new launches, surpassing pre- pandemic levels. The demand for housing continues to be from both, first-time homeowners as well as those moving up the property ladder – generally into larger homes. We saw a period from 2017 to 2020, when there was a slowdown in demand in the metro cities, but post Covid the demand has been robust. So, today we are seeing demand from across the country and we expect that growth momentum to continue. Penetration levels of mortgages in India are still low at 11% of GDP as compared to Asian peer countries where the mortgage to GDP ratio is significantly higher at 20-30% of GDP and in most advanced countries the mortgage to GDP ratio is upwards of 60%. We are positive on the outlook for real estate sector given India’s young demographics, rapid urbanisation, improved affordability and a need to own a house. What are some of the key ESG initiatives undertaken by your organization in recent years? How has it impacted the society? We have a strong emphasis on ESG and have a long-term commitment to finance affordable, smart & green homes. • HDFC has undertaken Environment & Social due diligence approach to create awareness across its corporate borrowers towards adopting best practices as well as being an environment and social compliant. • About 2/3rd of our lease rental discounting portfolio is certified as green by Indian Green Building Council or the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. • Our CSR initiatives, through H T Parekh Foundation are focused on 4 core sectors of Education, Healthcare, Livelihoods and supporting Persons with Disabilities as a separate target group. Also during Covid, our focus was on building the resilience of vulnerable and marginalised communities who were significantly impacted. HOUSING DEVELOPMENT FINANCE CORPORATION LIMITED Renu Sud Karnad Managing Director Dun & Bradstreet