Dewan Housing expands presence, opens 7 offices in India, 1 in London

Mumbai: Dewan Housing finance Corporation Ltd. (DHFL), the second largest private housing finance company in India, has announced the opening of its first representative office in the United Kingdom, in London, as its second international move. The first venture was its foray into the Middle East.

Established in 1984, the company has grown to become India's second largest private housing finance company, and has a representative office in Dubai, which provides housing loans to Non Resident Indians (NRI) to purchase homes in India and recently completed one successful year of operations. DHFL is spread across more than 170 locations in India, and its primary business is to provide housing loans to the lower and the middle income group in the semi-urban and rural areas of the country.

Kapil Wadhawan, vice chairman and managing director, DHFL said, ''United Kingdom has a population of over 1.5 million Indians and around 2,00,000 are based in London itself. We see a huge opportunity in business growth from the expatriates there.'' The company is planning to provide housing loans in high Indian concentration areas such as Ealing, Southall, Wembley and Aldgate, and will also provide information on properties available in India to London's non-resident Indian (NRI) population.

''We wish to ease the process of owning home in India for NRI's. Our huge network of offices across India will help in providing all relevant information for NRI customers in London,'' added Wadhawan.  ''The NRI community across the world has started actively buying residential property in India. Through our overseas offices we intend to offer an attractive option to Indians living and working abroad with our range of home finance products. The success of our foray into Dubai has encouraged us to venture into London where there are a large number of NRIs''.
 
DHFL will also open offices in seven additional locations in India. Three branch offices will be inaugurated in Panjim, Rewari and Itarsi, along with four service centres in Latur, Sangli and Swargate in Maharashtra, and Chandkheda near Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

Said Wadhawan, ''The need to increase the branch offices arises out of the need to effectively address the housing demand in these locations. These are upcoming locations and we see great potential for growth in these areas''.

After the planned expansion, the company will be present across 200 locations by the first quarter of 2008-09. DHFL will have 59 branches, 69 Service Centres and 47 camps across the country and two overseas representative offices in Dubai and London respectively.