"For the past two years, our home loan book has been growing at 30-40 per cent, but this year it has grown by only 10-15 per cent," executive vice-president and head of retail assets Sumit Bali told PTI.
He said the poor market sentiment is the prime reason for the slowdown in home loan growth and the same trend is being witnessed by the realty sector as well where demand has slowed down.
If that does not happen, they tend to pull back and wait for certainty to emerge before making their decision, he said adding that one should ideally enter in a depressed market for the best valuations.
As of the September quarter, the bank's home loans had stood at Rs 11,307 crore and had posted a year on year growth of 17 per cent.
Bali said competitive environment and a reduction in cost of funds were the drivers for Kotak to cut its rates.
When asked about the impact of the move on margins, he exuded confidence that the bank will broadly be able to hold on to them and added that a pick up in volumes following the move will also help.