MUMBAI: The country’s largest housing finance company, HDFC, is planning to replicate its housing success in education by launching its first English medium school under the CBSE stream in Gurgaon this week.

The HDFC School will be located in Sector 57 and will be the first of the many to be launched by the housing finance major’s wholly-owned subsidiary HDFC Education and Development Services . Though the school will start functioning only from next academic year (2015-16), it will accept admissions for nursery to standard III from this month. The HDFC School will have classes up to standard 12.

The housing finance major is eyeing a niche segment and will position it as ‘ international schools ’ in the metros. HDFC officials were tight-lipped about the fees but sources said it will be close to Rs 8,000 per month.

The push into education is being spearheaded by HDFC’s Delhi-based managing director Renu Karnad. In the recent annual general meeting, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh had said the first school will come up this year.

Besides setting up its own schools, HDFC will also be providing school management and other allied services.

HDFC had earlier entered the education finance sector by acquiring Credila Financial Services, the country’s first education loan company. HDFC, which started out by extending home loans for the middle class in 1977, has diversified into banking, education, insurance, mutual funds and broking.

Given the brand loyalty enjoyed by the group, the corporation had considered getting into real estate development and floated an arm, HDFC Developers. But this proposal was shot down by the Reserve Bank of India.