SBI Cuts Home Loan Rates by 0.25%

In a bid to stimulate demand, the State Bank of India (SBI) on recently reduced its housing loan rates by 0.15%-0.25%. The India's leading lender also cut the interest rates for women borrowers by another 0.05%. The bank's housing loan portfolio now stands at over Rs. 1.3 lakh crore.

For home loans up to Rs. 75 lakh, rates have been cut to 10.15 % per annum and, for those above Rs. 75 lakh, the revised rate stands at 10.3 %, the bank said in a statement.

For women borrowers, these rates are 10.10 % and 10.25 %, respectively. The bank classifies women borrowers as those who fill loan applications alone or / are first co-applicants &  will own the property themselves or /  will be first co-owners.

The move comes more than a month after SBI raised its base rate by 0.2% to 10 % in November, 2013 to counter the rising pressure of higher cost of funds. Around the same time, HDFC Bank also hiked its base rate to 10 %. SBI, which is also the leader in the housing loan market, had raised its base rate after the Reserve Bank of India (SBI) hiked repo rate by 0.25% to 7.75 % on October 29, 2013.

Now, Canara Bank has the lowest base rate in the industry at 9.95 %. The base rates of SBI, HDFC Bank & ICICI Bank all stand at 10 % each, while most large lenders offer a base rate of 10.25 % to customers.

Earlier, SBI charged 10.3 % for loans up to Rs. 30 lakh and 10.5 % for loans above that mark. The revised rates will be applicable from Friday, the statement said.

The revised equated monthly instalment (EMI) per lakh for a loan tenure of 30 years will be Rs. 885 for women customers and Rs. 889 for all other customers against the prevailing EMI of Rs. 900, the bank said.

SBI became the first lender to reduce interest rates after RBI's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday. The central bank RBI chose to not tinker with the repo rate even while retail inflation rates are soaring.

Bankers agree that any further decisions on their lending rates would depend on the liquidity position in the industry. If liquidity tightens and banks are required to raise deposit rates, the banking system may look at revising their lending rates upwards, bankers agreed.

Src: FE

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