With Budget 2026 approaching, real estate and lending experts are calling for the introduction of a housing credit passport to simplify and accelerate home loan approvals. The proposed system would create a consent-based digital snapshot of a borrower's financial profile, helping lenders reduce repetitive checks and shorten processing timelines.

A housing credit passport is envisioned as a standardised, borrower-approved digital profile that brings together key financial information such as income details, credit history, and existing liabilities. Lenders could access this snapshot during the loan application process instead of repeatedly collecting the same documents.

"A housing credit passport is a consent-based digital snapshot of a borrower's financial profile, covering income, credit history, and existing loans, which lenders can access during a home loan application," said Adhil Shetty, CEO of BankBazaar.

Industry participants point out that 80-85% of data used in home loan underwriting is already digital or semi-digital. Delays typically stem from repetitive documentation and verification rather than a lack of lender appetite. In many cases, loan processing can take 15-25 days, largely due to repeated checks.

Banks already pull credit reports from bureaus such as CIBIL to assess repayment behaviour and outstanding loans. They also verify income through salary slips, bank statements, tax filings, and, where applicable, GST data, along with employment details. Some physical checks, including address or property verification, still occur, especially in higher-risk cases.

A housing credit passport could consolidate much of this information upfront, reducing duplication and improving predictability for both borrowers and lenders.

Experts believe implementation is increasingly practical given the extent of digitisation across the lending ecosystem.

"A housing credit passport is increasingly feasible given how much of the home-loan underwriting process has already moved to digital systems," said Vishal Valecha, COO of Easy Home Finance. He noted that a significant share of borrower data, including banking patterns and income indicators, is already available in structured formats.

However, challenges remain. Valecha cautioned that data freshness, consent management, and over-standardisation would need careful handling. Around 35-40% of India's home-loan borrowers are self-employed or semi-formal earners, whose income streams may not fit neatly into uniform templates. Experts stress that lenders should retain flexibility to supplement passport data with contextual assessments rather than rely on it as a rigid eligibility filter.

Consider a salaried professional planning to purchase a ₹75 lakh home with a ₹60 lakh loan. With a housing credit passport, the borrower could share a pre-verified profile at the start of the application. Since most underwriting inputs would already be digitised, manual checks would reduce, enabling quicker clarity on eligibility and smoother coordination with sellers.

Experts estimate that such a system could cut manual document checks by 30-40% and reduce turnaround time by 40-50%, particularly for salaried and formally employed households.

"For borrowers in the ₹40 lakh to ₹80 lakh range, where approval delays often create cost pressure or transaction uncertainty, faster credit decisions could materially improve the home-buying experience," Valecha said, adding that final lending decisions would still rest with individual banks and housing finance companies.

While a housing credit passport may not directly lower EMIs or home prices, its broader value lies in greater transparency and predictability. Clearer visibility on eligibility, borrowing limits, and timelines could help families make informed decisions earlier in the home-buying journey.

"Faster approvals and lower rejection risk reduce stress and transaction costs during the home-buying process," Shetty said. When combined with subsidies and tax incentives, he added, such a system could meaningfully enhance the overall experience for homebuyers, even if it does not replace affordability-focused measures.

As home loan underwriting becomes increasingly digital, the proposal for a housing credit passport aligns with the broader push toward efficiency and transparency in India's housing finance ecosystem. While implementation would require careful handling of data consent and flexibility for diverse income profiles, experts believe such a system could meaningfully reduce approval timelines and uncertainty for homebuyers. If introduced in Budget 2026, the initiative could mark an important step toward simplifying access to housing credit without altering lenders' core risk assessment frameworks.