)
“Home loan enquiries have gone up after the Union Budget announcements. The conversions typically take 30-45 days from enquiry,” said Dhiraj Relli, senior executive vice president branch banking head – south, HDFC Bank.
He expects, for the first time, home loan borrowers may help increase loan offtake by 15-30% in the next financial year. Though the ticket size may not be high as home prices in the state and in Bangalore are lower than in Mumbai or Delhi.
The Finance Minister has allowed an additional Rs 1 lakh tax benefit for first time home loan seekers borrowing up to Rs 25 lakh in financial year 2013-14. This is over and above the Rs 1.50 lakh tax benefit for interest repayment home loan borrowers get.
The bank offered loan against property scheme has seen a higher demand in the past year with 20% growth on a year-on-year basis. The bank has seen more numbers of customers interested in financial planning and as part of that investing in equity mutual fund schemes by way of systematic investment plans (SIPs), though Relli did not quantify the increase.
This was on the sidelines of a press conference to announce opening 150 branches of the second largest private sector bank in the state. Of which 70 branches are in metropolitan cities, 29 in urban areas, 40 in semi-urban and 11 in rural areas. The bank opened its 150th branch in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district’s town of Sullia today.
Relli said, “In the next financial year, the bank would like to increase the number of branches to 200 in the state, with at least 20 more branches for rural and semi-urban areas.” He added that term insurance and general insurance products for businesses have seen good demand in the rural areas specially from women self-help groups.
HDFC Bank has branches in all districts in Karnataka except Chamrajnagar and Kolar, the bank expects to set up branches in these two districts by next quarter. Close to 10% of HDFC Bank's automated teller machines (ATMs) are in Karnataka, Relli added.
