Mumbai: Housing finance major HDFC has reported a 35 per cent fall in loan disbursals in April-June 2007-08, even as ICICI Bank saw a 42 per cent dip in home loan offtake amidst rising interest rates and soaring property prices.

In the first three months of the current financial year, HDFC and ICICI Bank have together disbursed home loans worth about Rs10,000 crore, down from over Rs16,000 crore in the previous quarter.

HDFC registered a 35 per cent fall in its home loan disbursements at Rs5,645 crore during the April-June 2007, from Rs 8,713 crore in the previous quarter.

ICICI Bank saw an even sharper erosion of 42 per cent in its home loan disbursals during the quarter, which dropped to about Rs4,500 crore from over Rs7,700 crore in the previous quarter.

While interest rates in the economy have peaked, it is difficult to predict whether they would fall just as property prices have in some parts of the country, a senior official of HDFC said.

"Interest rates have peaked and there is not much likelihood of them going up. Would they come down immediately? It is difficult to say," HDFC managing director Keki Mistry said.

Interest rates were not as much of a concern as property prices were, he said.

"Property prices are a worry in some places of the country. But in this quarter, we have not really seen a rise in asset prices," Mistry said, adding, "in some pl aces, they have come down."

HDFC posted a net profit of Rs372.81 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal as against Rs296.82 crore in the year-ago period. Total income stood at Rs1,830.39 crore as against Rs1,248.53 crore.