NHB RESIDEX, India’s first official housing price index, was an initiative of the National Housing Bank (NHB) undertaken at the behest of the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. The index was formulated under the guidance of a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) comprising of stakeholders from the housing market. It was launched in July, 2007 and updated periodically till March 2015, taking 2007 as the base year. During this period, the coverage of NHB RESIDEX was expanded gradually to 26 cities.

Initially, NHB RESIDEX was computed using market data, which 2010 onwards, was shifted to valuation data received from banks and housing finance companies (HFCs). Thereafter, data was sourced from Central Registry of Securitisation Asset Reconstruction and Security Interest of India (CERSAI) from 2013 to 2015.

With a view to make the NHB RESIDEX more current and up-to-date with the prevailing macro-economic scenario, NHB undertook a review of the processes and methodology used for computation of the index along with the base year and segmentation used.

Thereafter revamped NHB RESIDEX with larger scope and wider geographical coverage was published. This index is computed taking FY2012-13 as base year and is updated up to March 2018. With effect from April 2018, a new series with FY2017-18 as new base year has been published and is updated up to the current quarter. In order to maintain continuity in the time series data, NHB RESIDEX 2012-13 series subsequent to change in base year has been calculated using backward linking factor.

NHB RESIDEX now available online with wider geographical coverage

The scope has been widened under NHB RESIDEX brand, to include housing price indices (HPI), land price indices (LPI) and building materials price indices (BMPI), and also housing rental index (HRI).

A NHB RESIDEX Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) has been constituted to guide in developing the new system/processes for the preparation and publication of the indices. It comprises of representatives of Government of India (Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation), Reserve Bank of India, National Housing Bank, Banks, HFCs, Builder’s association and eminent professors experienced in statistical index computation.

Vision

NHB RESIDEX is built to ensure ease and clarity in decision-making within the sectors of real estate and real estate finance. It aims to provide guidance to stakeholders, not only in terms of a macroeconomic index, but also in the form of quarterly updated prices at a neighbourhood level. In doing so, NHB RESIDEX aspires to bring in greater transparency into India’s real estate markets by providing more structure, science, and discipline to property valuation. The idea is to establish greater trust among stakeholders and encourage wider and more competitive participation in the housing market. NHB RESIDEX will also serve as an effective tool to monitor the health and behaviour of housing markets in India.

Purpose

NHB RESIDEX is designed to track changes in housing prices at neighbourhood, city and national levels. Price changes will be measured over time and across cities and various locations within cities. NHB RESIDEX will help recognize current trends in micro as well as macro markets, and predict future behaviour of the housing market. It will be of immediate use to banks, HFCs, developers, and home-buyers. The trends provided by NHB RESIDEX will be useful for credit evaluation processes undertaken by lenders. The assessment of present and potential property values will ensure stronger safeguards against financial lending. NHB RESIDEX will also provide developers a standardised tool to gauge housing demand within cities and across the country. Consumers, i.e. home buyers, will be able to check and compare prices before entering into a property transaction. NHB RESIDEX will also be of great use to policy makers and various research institutions. Through NHB RESIDEX, policy makers can track inflation/deflation in housing prices. This knowledge can then be used to develop models for more effective revenue collection, and to design strategic changes in affordable housing schemes. NHB RESIDEX can be used to decipher a host of other macro trends, since housing is intimately linked to wider socio-economic factors.

Housing Price Indices (HPI)

The HPI represents the price changes in residential housing properties. At present, the geographical coverage consists of 50 cities in India including 18 State/UT capitals and 37 smart cities, which will progressively be expanded to over 100 cities including all State/UT capitals and smart cities.

Measuring overall change in housing prices in India is complex and challenging because of various data sources with dissimilar data sets. The information on housing prices varies according to the stage of transaction in which data is collected. As a result, three different prices including registered price, assessment price, and market price may apply.

Under HPI, the three indices viz., HPI@Registered Prices, HPI@Assessment Prices and HPI@Market Prices for Under Construction Properties use different sources to provide the entire spectrum of prevailing prices at city level. The data sources are registration data collected from Sub Registrar Offices (SROs) of States/UTs for HPI@Registered Prices, valuation data collected from Primary Lending Institutions for HPI@Assessment Prices and primary and secondary data collected through market survey for HPI@Market Prices for Under Construction Properties. NHB realised the importance of All India/National level index to provide comparison of NHB RESIDEX at international level. Accordingly, Composite Housing Price Indices were computed using population weights on the city wise indices to give a true representation of housing prices in the country.

Housing Rental Index (HRI)

Like HPI, NHB RESIDEX will also track the movement in housing rental prices over a period of time using market data.

Land Price Indices (LPI)

Land Price Indices will be built using market data and registration data. Land being the raw material for housing and industrial development, it is important to track its prices for maintaining economic efficiencies.

Building Materials Price Indices (BMPI)

Building Materials Price Indices will comprise of prices trends of traditional (like cement, steel, sand, brick, wood etc.) and energy saving (glass, fibre etc.) building materials.