The Affordable Housing Dream, Now With 165 Branches and an Identity Crisis

The Raju of Housing Loans: Transparent, Ethical, and Terrifyingly Competent

Home First Finance Company was founded in 2010 by three finance veterans: Jerry Rao (former Mphasis chairman), PS Jayakumar (ex-Bank of Baroda head), and Manoj Vishwanathan (current MD & CEO). Their mandate: serve first-time homebuyers earning under ₹50,000 monthly. Not sexy. Not blockchain. Not “revolutionizing workplace culture.” Just: boring, profitable, honest housing finance.

That was 15 years ago. Today, with 165 branches, 1,706 employees, and 1,33,702 active customer accounts, they’re the most underrated beast in Indian housing finance. The narrative doesn’t fit Wall Street templates. They give ₹12-lakh loans to electricians and nurses, not ₹2-crore ones to Instagram influencers. The margin is 5.2–6.0%. The funding cost has climbed (8.0% ex-co-lending), but they’ve stayed disciplined: no yield-chasing nonsense.

Concall commentary in Jan 2026 was pure gold. The CEO openly acknowledged that their lower-income borrowers faced a liquidity crunch when “easy availability of credit…quick personal loans…dried up over the last 12-18 months.” Translation: when the economy wobbles, your tenant in Tirupur can’t juggle three EMIs anymore. But he also said collections improved in Q3, early delinquencies came down 20 bps, and the macro tailwind is “just starting to change in the last 3-4 months.” They’re growing at 25% AUM CAGR while maintaining the lowest credit costs in their cohort. Boring? Yes. Broken? No.

They’re Not a Bank. They’re a Loan Machine. Made by Accountants. For Accountants.

Home First’s model is stupidly simple: find salaried folks (68% of portfolio) or self-employed traders (32%) earning ₹20–50K monthly, check their credit history (85% have one, 15% new-to-credit), underwrite conservatively (LTV ~60–65%), and lend them ₹10–15 lakh at 13% p.a. for 18–20 years. The average ticket size is ₹12 lakh, and they’re not ashamed about it. In fact, they’ve said ticket sizes will grow 3–5% annually “as a natural progression”—because the affordable housing below ₹10L is shrinking, and they’re deliberately moving upmarket to ₹10–40L.

They also do LAP (loans against property) at ₹10.5 lakh average ticket, 14-year tenure, 15% yield. LAP is now 17% of AUM. Product mix: 83% housing, 15% LAP, 1% shop loans. Funding mix: 57% banks, 16% NHB refinance, 20% direct assignment & co-lending, balance via NCDs/ECBs/NBFCs. They’ve been aggressively hiring connectors (3,600+ active), keeping them granular, and pumping real estate through the distribution network.

The key differentiator? Technology. 81% of approvals via Account Aggregator. 80%+ loans digitally fulfilled through e-agreements. 96% of customers on the app. They’re building proprietary document systems, running AI pilots, and deliberately keeping their operating cost at 2.6–2.7% of assets. That’s lower than peers and exactly at the level where they can scale without destroying profitability.

Q3 FY26: When Growth Meets Profitability, And Wins