A nation-wide housing price index may be a reality soon. The National Housing Bank, in collaboration with the National Council of Applied Economic Research, is close to finalising the methodology to be adopted for the index, named NHB Residex.
The index will give a realistic picture of housing price movement to policy-makers and consumers in major cities of the country.
"A pilot study was conducted in Noida and Faridabad based on which a draft report has been submitted to the NHB. The details of the methodology will be finalised by May-end after receiving feedback from the NHB," an NCAER official said.
NHB had come out with a pilot housing price index in July last year for five cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Bhopal - for the period 2001-2005. Besides updating the data for the five cities, it will now be extended to other large cities with an aim to gradually cover all the 63 cities under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.
NHB plans to prepare a half-yearly index initially. The base year for the index will be 2001. "We are collecting housing price data from various channels like buyers, sellers, brokers, property registrars, housing financial institutions, revenue and stamp authorities, and authorities giving approvals for housing," an NHB official said.
Once the module is finalised, NHB will feed the data into the system for making the index that will give an impression of the prices of houses of different specifications in a city and even at different parts of a city, the official added.
The NHB data will also form a key source of information for the central government for nuanced policy intervention. Besides, it can be used by banks and financial institutions for portfolio evaluation, collateral security for housing loans and risk assessment.
Developed countries like the US and UK have well-established housing price indices.
