Women constituted one-third of home loan borrowers last year

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Financial empowerment of women is an important metric in any developing country and if credit bureau CRIF High Mark data is any indication, India is witnessing a small but steady growth in women coming forward to take home loans. According to a report in The Times of India, the percentage of women in the entire home loan borrowers market has risen from 32% in 2022 to 33% in 2023.

Last year, women took more education, personal and gold loans too compared to the earlier year.

The share of women in gold loan is the highest – 44%, data showed. In 2022, women had a share of 41% in gold loans. Next comes education loans at 36%, which was 35% in 2022.

The share of women in property loans and business loans stood at 30% and 24% respectively, data from the credit bureau revealed.

One of the chief drivers of women taking more home loans is the slightly lower home loan rates offered to women debtors by banks, a facility that is also extended in case of joint loan applications.

This has resulted in more and more women coming to own immovable property and promoting inclusion in society. In case of joint applications, it also provides security cushion to the creditor institutions since the property is registered in the name of more than one debtor.

The lowest share of women is in personal loans – 16%. Incidentally, personal loans are usually consumption loans. The share of women rose in this segment too – from 15% in 2022.

The one segment where the contribution of women dropped in 2023 compared to the year earlier was business loans. While women had a 40% share in this significant sector in 2022, it slipped to 38% in 2023. This falling share in the pie drove down the cumulative share of women in the overall volume of retail loans – from 25% in 2022 to 24% in 2023.

However, data revealed that the share of women in value terms has remained at the same level in 2023 compared to 2022.

In terms of volume of loans, business loans comprise 6% of the total 59.6 crore retail loans. Personal loans account for the biggest share of the retail pie – 18% and in this segment women’s share has crept up to 16%. But in terms of value, the share of women in the cumulative retail loan basket of Rs 117.3 lakh crore stood at 26% in 2023 – the same level as in 2022.

The credit bureau data also showed that the number of active women borrowers went up to 7.8 crore in December 2023. It rose from 6.7 crore in December 2022 and, therefore, registered a 17.8% growth. Compared to women, male debtors grew at a slower pace – 13.1%. The number of male borrowers with active loans rose from 17.8 crore in 2022 to 20.2 crore in December 2023.