At an average of barely Rs 3.4 lakh per housing loan, the residents of the Sikkimese capital may not be able to match the residents of the metros when it comes to the size of the loan, but in terms of the sheer proportion of families that are borrowing to have a nest they can call their own, smalltown India is on the march.

However, in terms of the value of housing loans, Mumbai tops the list with a little under Rs 24,000 crore in 2005-06, the latest year for which detailed data is available. Delhi was next with over Rs 16,000 crore, followed by Bangalore with over Rs 14,000 crore, Chennai (a little more than Rs 10,000 crore) and Hyderabad (over Rs 7,000 crore). The metros dominate this list, even without including suburban districts like Thane and Thiruvallur.

How you rank the cities in terms of their propensity for housing loans depends on which parameter you choose -- the volume of loans, the value of each loan, the proportion of households that borrowed or the average borrowing per household.

Look at the average value of each loan account opened in 2005-06 and the list changes. Noida now tops the list with Rs 10.5 lakh followed by Gurgaon with Rs 10.2 lakh and Delhi with Rs 9.8 lakh. Mumbai, with an average housing loan of Rs 7 lakh, is now in eighth place. It is a list that has the big metros and their immediate neighbours crowding the top of the chart.

Look at it in terms of the average housing loan per household and the list changes. Noida and Gurgaon remain on top with Rs 1.49 lakh and Rs 1.29 lakh respectively, but Chandigarh and Chennai, with an average of just over Rs 1 lakh, are now joint third while Delhi slips to No 17 with Rs 0.49 lakh.