Gold loans witnessed massive rise to become India’s second-largest retail credit product by balance share after housing loans, according to TransUnion CIBIL’s Gold Loan Landscape Report.
Gold loans share in retail credit portfolio has risen 3.8 times from 5.9% in March 2022 to 11.1% by December 2025. Housing loans with 27.8% share by balance as of December 2025 forms the largest retail credit product.
Gold loans have cornered 39% of all incremental credit disbursals in December quarter, vastly outpacing housing loans that otherwise is the largest retail credit segment netting only 11% of the fresh loans.
For the period between March 2022 and December 2025, home loans remain the largest retail credit portfolio, with a total outstanding of `44 trillion or 27.8% of the total, while gold loans come second with `16 trillion outstanding, cornering 11.1% of the total retail credit, the report stated.
“Driven by the record rally in gold prices in 2025, when looked at from an incremental loan disbursal, gold loans have overtaken housing loan, which otherwise is the largest retail credit segment to become the largest with a share of 39% in the December 2025 quarter, as against the meagre 11% for home loans,” Bhavesh Jain, chief executive, Transunion Cibil told TNIE on Tuesday.
Gold loan origination value has risen 5.1x since Q1 of 2022 and the average ticket size has more than doubled from `90,000 to `1.96 lakh, Jain said.
Prime and above prime borrowers now account for nearly 52% of originations, highlighting a broader and stronger borrower base in the gold loan market, he said citing the data from their latest report. Gold loan balances have grown 3.8x since March 2022, with their share in the retail credit portfolio rising from 5.9% to 11.1% by December 2025.
The growth reflects rising borrower adoption, higher ticket sizes, broader lender participation, and a borrower profile that increasingly includes consumers and women borrowers with more extensive credit histories.
This massive growth has been especially strong among pure-play gold loan companies like the Muthoots, the Manappurams and IIFLs, which increased their share from 7% in March 2022 to 11% in December, while public sector banks continue to dominate the market and increased their share from 57% to 62% during this period and the rest of the pie is with private sector banks.
Supply trends point to a sharp expansion in market activity as prices have been on a roll, but Jain said there has been no increase in delinquencies since the price crash in late January 30 when the prices plunged almost 13% on a single day after CME prices crossed $5600 an ounce on January 29, a record 40% rally in January alone on the back of an 80% in 2025 and 24% in 2024 and 23% in 2023. As of end February there is no asset quality issue, he said.
Borrower profiles are also changing, the report said. The share of prime and above prime borrowers rose from 43% in 2022 to around 52% in 2025, while new-to-credit participation declined from 12% to 6%, suggesting that gold loans are becoming more broad-based and diverse in the borrower profiles.
Women accounted for 39% of gold loan originations by volume in 2025, up from 36% in 2022, with strong growth visible not only in the South but also across Western and Northern states with more and more demand coming in form Telangana, UP, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and MP.