Home loan growth slumps.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cut the CRR rate in recent times. At the same time it has not hiked the interest rate any further. And to add to this the banks have been offering attractive schemes for housing loans. But despite all this housing loan growth has slumped to a 5 month low. As per the mortgage lenders, interest rates are not responsible for this slump. The reason is actually the higher property prices. Property prices have zoomed to touch new highs. And this has made homes more unaffordable to the public especially to the middle income households. As per the RBI and as reported by the Economic Times home prices rose by nearly 24.1% i n the quarter ended September 2012. This is higher than the aver age of 20% seen during the previous 2 years. As a result most people have preferred to defer their home purchases till prices ease a bit. This has reflected in the slump in housing loan growth seen in recent times.