Banks celebrate the return of home buyers

As more enquiries are getting converted into sales, the pace of ongoing projects are picking up and new projects are also being launched.

“For State Bank of India, one of the major lenders of home loans, the past three months have really been good”, a senior officer who deals with home loans in the bank said.

While the latest hike in repo and reverse repo rates by the Reserve Bankmaymake loans a little costlier for newborrowers, existing borrowers will not be impacted by the changes in base rate, the SBI officer asserted. SBI is unlikely to pass on the rate hikes by RBI to home loan borrowers immediately.

SBI chairman OP Bhatt had, in fact, ruled out any impact on SBI’s margins froma likely jump in the deposit rates, saying an expected pickup in loan growth on the back of economic recovery would help the bank maintain its margins.

Though investments have increased in the home asset category, developers fear that higher interest rates at this juncture could drive down demand. “The realty sector is reeling under a paucity of funds, and prices have been showing an upward trend. Webelieve that any further increase in the interest ratesmaylead to a downtrend in the overall demand”, Rohtas Goel, chairman and

... contd.