SBI increases sops for home loans above Rs 75 lakh in festive push

Amid intense competition to a grab slice for retail credit during the festive season, banks are giving more sops to attract customers. The country’s largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), has now announced another round of interest rate benefits.

As a step to push retail credit in the festive season, SBI will give an interest concession of up to 25 basis points for home loans above Rs 75 lakh. The extent of concession is linked to credit score and application made through the lender’s digital lending app YONO.

SBI now offers interest rates starting as low as 6.90 per cent for a home loan of up to Rs 30 lakh and 7 per cent for above Rs 30 lakh.

It also increased the credit score-linked concession up to 20 basis points, from 10 basis points earlier, for a home loan of above Rs 30 lakh to Rs 2 crore across India. The same concession would also be applicable home loans up to Rs 3 crore in eight metro cities, SBI said in a statement.

Bankers said with gradual unlocking, banks are working to tap pent-up demand and festival season rise in purchases, especially in durables. The competition among lenders is intense to get a slice of demand which is subdued compared to last festive season.

C S Setty, MD (Retail & Digital Banking), SBI, said: "With the nation all geared for the post-Covid era, we are witnessing increased customer demands. SBI will continue to offer lucrative benefits suiting needs and requirements of the customers.

Early this month, its new chairman Diensh Khara, after taking charge, had said after the gradual withdrawal of restrictions, economic activity has slowly picked up the pace, and the bank was witnessing credit growth of around 6-7 per cent as of now. Its domestic retail credit rose by 12.85 per cent to Rs 748,800 crore at the end of June 2020 (Q1FY21).

Private lender YES Bank, associate of SBI, has also come out with a slew of benefits, including discounts on processing fee on loans, no-cost EMIs, gift vouchers, and cashback for retail customers.

It is giving car loan of up to 100 per cent on on-road price, and pre-owned car loan of up to 100 per cent on car valuation. It is also offering hassle-free and easy home loan with up to 35 years of tenure.

According to the Reserve Bank of India data, the retail credit activity covering segments like housing and credit cards moderated in August 2020, against the trend in July. Retail loans grew by Rs 16, 879 crore in August; they had grown by Rs 40,853 crore in July, the RBI data showed. Retail loans had grownby Rs 11,518 crore in June.

Three critical categories — housing, credit card, and vehicle — saw a slowdown. Housing loans rose by just Rs 1,936 crore in August (Rs 11,663 crore in July), and credit card outstanding was up by Rs 3,442 crore (Rs 3,805 crore in July). The vehicles segment also saw a marginal rise of Rs 2,072 crore (Rs 3,095 crore in July).