PNB Housing Finance Ltd (PNB HFL) plans to foray into the emerging developer finance sector, restart construction finance business and explore the micro housing loan market even as the company expects to grow its loan book to around ₹1 lakh crore by end-March 2027.
At the end of December 2025, 99.7 per cent of the housing finance company’s total loan assets, amounting to ₹82,203 crore, consisted of retail loans, including individual home loans and non-home loans (loans against real estate), with a minuscule portion accounted for by corporate/developer loans.
Ajai Kumar Shukla, who took charge of PNB HFL as MD & CEO on December 18, 2025, said by venturing into the emerging developer finance sector (loans starting from ₹5 crore and going up to ₹25 crore) and restarting the construction finance business (loans starting from ₹25 crore and going up to ₹200 crore), the corporate finance portfolio’s share of total loans assets will increase to around 4-5 percent in FY27.
He expects the share of the corporate finance portfolio to grow to around 8 to 10 percent of total credit assets over the next two to three years. However, this share is limited to 10 percent.
PNB HFL has been reducing its corporate finance portfolio (consisting of loans mainly extended to developers to finance construction of residential/commercial properties), which stood at 21.1 percent of total loan assets at the end of March 2019, including through sell-offs and selective write-offs over the past six years due to asset quality issues. This book is now worth Rs 247 crore. (or 0.3 percent).
Shukla noted that even as the housing finance company continues its focus on the three retail segments – affordable, emerging and premium – it will restart the corporate finance business with a new model and also foray into the emerging developer finance sector. Overall, this move will help the company improve its net interest margin and returns.
Micro home loans (ticket size: ₹5 lakh to ₹25 lakh) have been identified as another area that the company will focus on once the above-mentioned businesses gain momentum.
Shukla believes that if there is one HFL that can fill the void of the erstwhile HDFC (India’s largest housing finance company that merged with HDFC Bank on July 1, 2023) in the coming years, it would be PNB HFL because of its brand, stability, distribution and team, among others.
At the end of December 2025, Punjab National Bank, the promoter of PNB HFL, was the largest shareholder (28.04 percent share), followed by mutual funds (collectively 30.01 percent), foreign portfolio investors (17.22 percent) and insurance companies (7.95 percent).
Published on January 22, 2026
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