ICICI Bank cuts home loan rate to 6.7%, lowest in a decade
- ICICI Bank’s move comes days after other lenders like State Bank of India, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Housing Development Finance Corporation lowered their home loan rates
Mumbai: Private sector lender ICICI Bank on Friday said it has lowered its interest rate on home loans up to ₹75 lakh to 6.7%, its lowest in 10 years.
The revised rate, the bank said, will be applicable from Friday. For loans above ₹75 lakh, interest rates begin at 6.75%. These revised rates will be available till March 31.
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ICICI Bank’s move comes days after other lenders like State Bank of India (SBI), Kotak Mahindra Bank and Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC Ltd) lowered their home loan rates.
Ravi Narayanan, head (secured assets) at ICICI Bank said in a statement that the bank is seeing resurgence in demand from consumers, who want to buy homes for their own consumption, in the past few months.
“We believe that this is an opportune time for an individual to buy his/her dream home, considering the prevailing low interest rates," said Narayanan.
Flush with liquidity and in tandem with Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) repo rate cuts since March last year, banks have been lowering their lending rates. Home loans rates at present are at a 15-year low, experts have pointed out. However, as Mint reported on 4 March, lenders are still being picky and pricing loans differently, depending on the risk profile and creditworthiness of borrowers.
For SBI and Kotak Mahindra Bank, the rate of 6.7% and 6.65%, respectively, are available only to borrowers with credit score of 800 and above. Typically, credit bureau scores are used to judge the creditworthiness of borrowers and are essential for getting loans, with some lenders offering lower interest rates to customers with higher scores.
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In November last year, ICICI Bank said it had crossed the ₹2-trillion mark in mortgage loans.
Lenders have traditionally preferred secured assets over unsecured ones and home loans are one of the most sought-after businesses. With an immovable asset like a house as collateral, banks and non-banks have been quite bullish on mortgages. Bankers said post-pandemic, there has been a renewed demand for buying homes, leading to higher sanctions and disbursals of home loans.
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