Godrej enters financial services space with the launch of Godrej Housing Finance

The Godrej Group has announced its entry into the financial services industry with Godrej Housing Finance (GHF) through which it hopes to build a long-term and sustainable retail financial services business in India, aiming for a balance sheet of Rs 10,000 crore in the next three years.

The firm hopes to invest Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 crore in the next three years, the company said, adding the plan currently is to do it of the group's balance sheet.

GHF intends to focus on the mortgage business starting with home loans, followed shortly by loans against property. In the near future, the company will expand its product portfolio to offer business and personal loans, leveraging the group’s consumer and agri business ecosystems to build these verticals, the company said.

GHF will offer fair, fast, and flexible home loans across India starting with customers in Mumbai, NCR, Pune, and Bengaluru. GHF will partner with developers, including Godrej Properties, to build a financing experience for their existing and new customers.

GHF’s product offerings are guided by three pillars - flexibility (enabling customers to customise the payment of their own contribution and EMI schedule), affordability (offering competitive pricing with lowest interest rates starting at 6.69 percent) and personalisation (using data-driven decision making to micro segment customers and tailor-made loan offerings).

“We are excited to launch our financial services business today.  This is the first step in what we hope will be another important pillar of growth for the Godrej Group. The increasing formalisation of the real estate sector combined with the dislocation in the residential real estate and housing finance markets makes this a particularly interesting opportunity at the current moment,” said Pirojsha Godrej, Chairman, GHF.

“We believe that the housing finance market is under penetrated and underserved. The industry is also plagued with being complex and convoluted with hidden conditions and painfully long customer journeys. We aim to correct this. We want to give customers a home loan that is customised to what’s important to them, basis their housing needs, financial capability and convenience,” said Manish Shah, Managing Director and CEO, GHF.