Arjun PG’s house saves up to 40 per cent energy through the grid, which makes him eligible for refinancing from the National Housing Bank (NHB) under the Energy Efficient Home programme.

But he has not availed of it. Arjun says, “I never knew about the scheme that refinances home loan for energy efficient residential buildings.”

Chandrasekar Hariharan, Chairman of ZED Habitats, an energy-efficient homes builder, and member of the Indian Green Building Council, said they have not witnessed any financial benefit to customers from home-finance companies that fund ZED home buyers.

“Though the scheme adds value to buyers as well as builders, not many of them are aware of the scheme,” he added.

Hariharan said NHB had also announced re-finance of construction through its non-banking financial company for qualifying green projects. “This has also not seen light of day yet,” he added.

Despite the schemes introduced by the Government to encourage the adoption of energy efficiency in residential buildings, there is lack of awareness. NHB’s Energy Efficient Homes Programme was proposed to promote green residential buildings by re-financing buyers whose houses save up to 30 per cent of electricity through the grid.

The benchmark was set based on a study, which estimated potential savings for different climate zones and buildings types in India.

The scheme was planned in partnership with KfW Development Bank, a German government-owned development bank, as a promotional programme in 2010, with the line of credit of €50 million to NHB for refinancing individual home buyer loans.

K Usha Rao, Senior Sector Specialist (Energy & Transport), KfW, said some partner banks of NHB offer interest rate reductions of up to 0.25 per cent per annum for the scheme.

“NHB has so far refinanced 2,000 home loans worth more than €50 million,” she added. Though the scheme was promoted through conferences, roundtables, website and flyers, Rao said the knowledge among buyers is observed to be low, which might be due to other factors involved in the process of buying a house.

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