Around 25% loans to MMR developers 'severely' stressed: Anarock

Nearly 25 per cent loans provided to real estate developers in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) are currently under severe stress, according to a survey by Anarock Capital.

"Of the total $35 billion loan advances given to developers in MMR, nearly $8.7 billion (or 25 per cent) is currently under 'severe' stress. This is exactly double of the total stressed loan amount in NCR (at $4.3 billion)," Shobhit Agarwal, Managing Dieroctor and Chief Executive Officer, Anarock Capital, said on Sunday.

The NCR real estate market has so far received total loans worth $23 billion from banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and housing finance companies (HFCs), he added.

Both MMR and NCR collectively have loans worth $13 billion under "severe" stress category with extremely poor prospects of recovery from the borrowing developers, the survey revealed.

"Previously, many developers were engaged in high leveraging and fund diversions. To compound the problem, housing sales have remained tepid over the last few years, resulting in depleted cash reserves," said Agarwal.

The survey further showed that Bengaluru is currently better placed in terms of existing stressed loans, compared to both NCR and MMR.

"Merely 1 per cent ($160 million) of the total $16 billion of real estate loans in the city are in the 'red alert' category the result of better financial discipline of the city's developers, lower demand/supply mismatch and range-bound property prices to ensure gradual rather than haphazard growth," he said.

Bengaluru supersedes NCR and MMR markets in servicing its debt to banks, NBFCs or HFCs. The city has much better stress-level readings with over 70 per cent, of the total $16 billion completely stress-free. In NCR, the stress-free share is at 53 per cent and in MMR, it is 58 per cent of the total loan advances.

Of the total real estate loan of $93 billion in the country, NCR, MMR and Bengaluru together account for 80 per cent or $74 billion.

Of the overall loan amount extended to real estate, $14 billion or 16 per cent is under "severe" stress while nearly 62 per cent or around $58 billion is completely stress-free, showed the survey.

The remaining 22 per cent or $21 billion loan amount is under pressure but can potentially be resolved.

( With inputs from IANS )