Mumbai, Sep 27 (IANS): Piramal Finance on Wednesday announced its foray into the retail housing finance business through its wholly-owned subsidiary Piramal Housing Finance.

"Under a licence received from the National Housing Bank to operate, the housing finance vertical will offer home loans as well as loans against property and construction finance for small developers," the company said in a statement.

"Given the size, scale and market relevance of the wholesale lending business, it was a natural progression to assess opportunities within the retail lending space."

"The retail housing finance business will initially focus on a product roll out across all major metro cities and thereafter seek to establish a pan-India presence, including tier 2, 3 towns and cities. The retail construction finance arm will focus on local developers in tier 1 and top developers in tier 2, 3 geographies," it said.

Piramal Finance's existing wholesale business has over Rs 35,000 crore in assets under management (across debt and equity), with funding across over 300 projects and over 100 development partners, it added.

Ajay Piramal, Chairman, Piramal Enterprises, said: "Through Piramal Housing Finance, we will be able to deliver a seamless and customer-centric experience to all our stakeholders - including individuals, developers, agents, partners and now the target end users as well. By doing this, we shall further cement our existing relationships and forge new ones."

Khushru Jijina, Managing Director, Piramal Finance, and MD, Piramal Housing Finance, said: "Given the size, scale and market relevance of the wholesale lending business, it was a natural progression to assess opportunities within the retail lending space."

"We see the housing finance business as an extended product vertical of our existing business, creating value not just for ourselves but the entire ecosystem."