A week after the Budget made homes more expensive by imposing a service tax of 10% on the cost of construction, banks are now ratcheting up interest rates by 0.25-0.50%. Bankers say they expect rates to rise by another 0.25-0.50% after two-three months when the Reserve Bank ups rates in general at its next credit policy review in April.
All new home buyers will now have to pay 0.25-0.50% of additional interest. This is because the Reserve Bank of India has impounded more bank cash to check inflation, with the cash reserve ratio being raised by 0.75% to 5.75% in February. New borrowers will have to shell out Rs633 more in terms of equated monthly installments (EMIs) compared to people who have already raised their loans.
Home loan vendors are not making the buying decision any easier. Kotak Mahindra Bank, too, has announced a hike in home loan rates. On Thursday, leading home financiers ICICI Bank and Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) ended their “teaser home loan” schemes, under which rates were as low as 8-8.25% in the initial years.An ICICI Bank spokesperson said that the “two-year fixed-rate home loan scheme has been discontinued from March 1, 2010. The current floating home loan rates are 8.75% for loans up to Rs 30 lakh, 9% for Rs 30-50 lakh and 9.5% above Rs 50 lakh.”
