The office will sell loans to non-resident Indians, who are planning buy property in India.
DHFL already has a branch office in Dubai and tied up with UAE Sponsorship Centre LLC, part of NMC Group, to sell its products, including home loans and home improvement loans, to NRIs in UAE for buying residential properties in India.
The company has plans to open offices in the US, Singapore and other parts of West Asia such, such as Oman and Qatar in the next couple of years.
"The NRI community is totally underserved. We want to tap the vast business potential arising from 2.5 crore (Rs 25 million) NRIs working abroad,'' said Kapil Wadhawan, vice chairman and
managing director, DHFL.
The company is looking to have more than Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) of loan disbursals in the next couple of years in international operations. "We have done a business of Rs 30 crore (Rs 300 million) in Dubai in last one year and are confident of good business in London also,'' Wadhawan said.
Asked whether the company is focussing on international markets due to high property prices in India and subsequent slowdown in demand for housing loans, Wadhawan said: "Nearly 50 per cent of our business comes from tier-II and III towns which have not seen any slowdown. We are still a domestic major and going international is part of our overall growth plans."
DHFL has plans to have Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) loan portfolio by 2010 and wants to add 50 outlets by 2009. Now it has 56 branches, 67 service centres and 47 camp locations.
