Mortgage financier Housing Development and Finance Corporation (HDFC) on Sunday increased its retail prime lending rate (RPLR) by 5 basis points for existing customers, with effect from May 1, 2022. This comes after many large banks, including State Bank of India (SBI) increased their marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) by 5 – 10 basis points.
HDFC's adjustable-rate home loans or floating rate loans are benchmarked to the RPLR. Hence, any change in RPLR effectuates a change in the applicable interest rates.
For new customers, however, HDFC’s adjustable-rate home loans for customers with a credit score of above 750 will continue to be 6.70 per cent.
For loans of upto Rs 30 lakh, new customers would be charged an interest rate of 6.80 per cent and for loans ranging between Rs 30-75 lakh, the interest will continue to be 7.05 per cent, and loans above Rs 75 lakh will have an interest rate of 7.15 per cent. For women customers in all segments, the interest rate is 5 basis points lower.
Last month, SBI increased its MCLR by 10 basis points, with effect from April 15, across all tenors (100 bps=1 percentage point). The one-year MCLR has been revised to 7.1 per cent while two- and three-year MCLRs have been raised to 7.3 per cent and 7.4 per cent, respectively.
The MCLR is a benchmark interest rate, which is the minimum rate at which banks are allowed to lend. Most loans are linked to the one-year MCLR.
Further, Axis Bank, the third-largest private-sector lender in the country, and Kotak Mahindra Bank hiked their MCLR by 5 basis points while Kotak Mahindra Bank, increased its one-year MCLR by 5 bps to 7.4 per cent, from April 16. Bank of Baroda, public-sector lender, has also increased its MCLR by 5 basis points, with effect from April 12.
The increase in lending rates comes after the Reserve Bank of India’s hawkish stance in the recently concluded monetary policy meeting last month as it turned its focus to tackle inflation from supporting growth.
Due to the ultra-accommodative monetary policy stance and excess liquidity in the system for the last two years, interest rates are at an all-time low with many lenders offering mortgage loans as low as 6.5 per cent.