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Khera said SBI was the country’s cheapest home loan provider with an NPA of less than 1 percent, even during COVID.

“We will get to the next Rs 5 trillion much faster than the 10 years it took us initially. We are targeting a (home loan) portfolio of Rs 7 lakh crore in three years and Rs 10 lakh crore in five years,” Khara said in a press conference.

Despite a massive setback to the real estate sector triggered by the pandemic-induced lockdown, the home loan vertical registered strong growth even in December 2020 with the highest sourcing, sanctions, disbursements, and growth. The bank is now targeting a home loan AUM of Rs 7 lakh crore by 2023-24.

SBI is extending builder loans and also approving their projects in anticipation that offtake will improve. When it comes to builder-approved loans, its turnaround time is about five days.

SBI became the market leader in the home loan segment in 2013-14.

Khara said the bank has a market share of about 35% among all scheduled commercial banks and going forward, home loans will be a major focus area for the lender within the retail segment. SBI is also looking to implement artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, blockchain, and machine learning, which can play a pivotal role in propelling not only the home loan business but also other businesses.

“I feel that going forward we will see a much greater shift in this direction and the increase in earnings of the younger generation, their aspirations and the concept of the nuclear family are going to be the contributing reasons for people to apply for homes at an early age,” Khara noted.

The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) in the home loan segment is 0.67-0.68 percent, he said. Khara said that out of about 39 lakh-odd borrowers who were eligible to be considered under the RBI”s one-time restructuring plan, only about 10,000 customers have availed of the restructuring option, which is aggregating to about Rs 2,500 crore.

So, if we look at a book size of Rs 5 lakh crore, out of that only Rs 2,500 crore has been put through restructuring,” he said while explaining the quality of the home loan book.

About 72 percent of our customers are in the salaried bracket and all of them are in a position to honor their commitments pretty well, he noted.

Of the Rs 5-lakh crore portfolio, home loans account for Rs 4.86 lakh crore and builder finance is about Rs 11,000 crore. About 2 lakh customers have been extended loan facilities in the affordable segment.

To lure customers to take home loans, SBI has completely waived off the processing fee on such loans until March 2021 in SBI approved projects. The bank has sanctioned close to 2 lakh home loans under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) so far. SBI is the only bank designated by MoHUA (Ministry of Housing and Urban Development) as the Central Nodal Agency (CNA) for processing the PMAY subsidy.

“We feel that combining technology with personalized service is the key in the current scenario. The bank is also working on various digital initiatives to improve the efficiencies in home loan delivery including a unique integrated platform Retail Loan Management System (RLMS) which will provide an end-to-end digital solution,” Khara said.

The bank’s average ticket size for home loans has risen from Rs 25 lakh a few years back to Rs 31 lakh now, and is expected to remain at the current level for the near future, Khara said.

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