No rise in home loan rates

Move follows finance minister's request to PSU banks.

Home loan rates of public sector banks will not be raised following a request made by Finance Minister P Chidambaram at a performance review here today.

"The rates will be held at current levels," Chidambaram told reporters after the meeting. There were expectations that home loan rates would be raised after the Reserve Bank of India raised its repo rate (the rate at which the central bank lends money against government securities) by 25 basis points in last week's credit policy.

The floating home loan rate ranges between 9.5 and 10 per cent, while fixed home loans come at 11.25-11.50 per cent for 20-year tenures.

Public sector banks' housing loan portfolio grew 111 per cent to Rs 1,13,230 crore on September 2006 from Rs 53,737 crore in March 2004.