Chennai-based affordable housing finance firm Repco Home Finance (RHFL), majority owned by Repco Bank, is betting big on two new housing finance schemes for growth, a top official said.

Of the two, the first one is a group housing finance scheme for government employees, mainly from State Transport Corporation. It has rolled out the scheme in outskirts of Chennai, Kumbakonam, Namakkal, Karur, Coimbatore and Salem.

The company will fund right from land acquisition to construction of the property, with a ticket size ranging from Rs 5-6 lakh. It aims to cover 500 units in Chennai and 2,500 units across other regions in Tamil Nadu.

Under the second sch­eme, it plans to cover micro housing projects in rural areas mainly targeting farmers. It targets a disbursement of Rs 200 crore covering 2,000 units under the project over a span of next three years in Chennai, as well as Thiruvallur and Sivaganga districts in Tamil Nadu.

“In the rural housing finance scheme, our wholly owned subsidiary Repco Infro will be involved in the construction of houses and also in the assessment of the project. It will also provide top up loans for projects in which amounts provided is not sufficient to complete the construction,” M Balasubramanian, managing director of Repco Home Finance, said. He added that the regulator, National Housing Board has agreed to provide refinance loans at the rate of 4 per cent for loans given for the purpose of sanitation.

RHFL, started in 2002, is focused on lending for affordable housing in tier-II and tier-III cities. At present, it has a network of 50 branches across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Puducherry, Maharashtra and Bhubaneswar.

Its loan size range from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 20 lakh and nearly 95 per cent are under floating category. In December 2007, US private equity firm Carlyle Group picked up 49 per cent stake in the company for $27.7 million.

RHFL expects its loan portfolio to grow 50 per cent to Rs 2,100 crore in financial year 2011 from last year, with a sanction target of Rs 1,000 crore and disbursal target of Rs 915 crore. Out of the target, Rs 308 crore has already been sanctioned for fresh housing loans till July.