National Housing Bank (NHB) was set up on 9th July 1988 with the mandate to provide financial and other support to the housing finance institutions in the country and to channelize funds into the housing sector. It is committed to the development of the housing finance system on sound, viable and sustainable lines. NHB’s initiatives and Programmes have led to significant growth and expansion of the housing finance sector catering to the needs and requirements of all segments of the population covering all States / UTs in the country.
National Housing Bank (NHB) and Agence Française de Développement (AFD), France has entered into a collaboration for a project namely “Financing energy efficient residential housing and related infrastructure under Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Energy Facility (SUNREF) Housing”.
Under this project, AFD has sanctioned a financial assistance of Euro 112 million comprising of two component namely, Euro 100 million as loan from AFD and Euro 12 million as grant from the European Union under the Asian Investment Facility. The grant fund will be used to reduce costs for accession to the green housing market by allowing the NHB to reduce the cost of the financial resources to be provided to Primary Lending Institutions and by supporting the cost of a green label certification for housing projects.
The expected outcomes and impacts of the project are to create demonstrative effect in order to influence the housing industry; to popularize a green labeling approach which is supplementary to necessary regulation measures; to make green housing affordable to low-income households and to reduce emissions of CO2, water consumption and waste production through the improvement of energy efficiency, water use and raw material optimization use.
Pursuant to the above, NHB and AFD have organized a launched event the Project “NHB-AFD SUNREF Housing” on August 17, 2017 at New Delhi. The Event was inaugurated jointly by NHB, AFD and European Union. Shri Sriram Kalyanaraman, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, NHB delivered the Welcome address. Opening Address was given by Claire Thuaudet, Deputy Chief of Mission, Minister Counsellor, Embassy of France and the Special address was delivered by Tomasz Kozlowski, Ambassador of the European Union to India.
The participants included officials from government agencies, banks, Housing Finance Companies, Green Rating Agencies, officials from multilateral institutions viz., World Bank, Department for International Development, UK and other key stakeholders.
