LIC Housing Finance director and CEO S.K. Mitter (left) and regional manager T.T. Kabui in Calcutta on Wednesday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, Feb. 8: LIC Housing Finance Ltd plans to build a housing complex for senior citizens in the city at Rajarhat through its wholly-owned subsidiary, LICHFL Carehomes.

?We have already made presentations to the Bengal government and are in talks with Gautam Dev, the state urban development and housing minister, to buy out a 10-acre plot at Rajarhat. But nothing has materialised yet as the government says it is very difficult to get a 10-acre plot in that area,? said S.K. Mitter, director and chief executive of LIC Housing Finance.

LIC Housing Finance is keen on the Calcutta project because the company is putting more emphasis to generate income from its non-core activities. If the company doesn?t get the required land at Rajarhat, it may look at Dankuni for the proposed project.

The senior citizen housing project will comprise 100 dwelling units with room sizes of 400 sq ft, 600 sq ft and 800 sq ft (carpet area).

Besides Calcutta, LICHFL Carehomes has also identified Kottayam in Kerala and Bhubaneswar in Orissa to come up with similar housing projects in the next fiscal.

?In Kerala, we will take over some unfinished senior citizen housing projects being developed by the state government there. The Bhubaneswar project will, however, be our own,? said Mitter. ?We will concentrate on these three projects during this year,? he added.

LICHFL Carehomes, which has been set up a couple of years ago to tap the growing demand for housing for seniors, is already developing its maiden project in Bangalore. ?The Bangalore project will be completed by mid-March this year,? Mitter said.

However, the dwelling units are not for outright sale. ?We will lease them out for a period of 30 years to people above 50 years of age,? Mitter said. ?The price for a 800-sq-ft unit at our Bangalore project would be Rs 9 lakh. However, the prices for the upcoming projects will be higher as the Bangalore property is our first property,? he said.

LIC Housing Finance has recently hiked its home loan rates by 0.5 per cent across all maturity. The rate rise will take effect from February 10 and the minimum interest rate on a housing loan from the company will stand at 8.25 per cent.

?We will also tie up with prominent builders in the country to foster business growth,? Mitter said. ?Our average cost of borrowing funds has gone up to 7 per cent, while the average yield on advances is 8.7 per cent.?