SBI expects `2k-cr biz in 2-day expo

Hyderabad: India's largest public sector bank State Bank of India (SBI) is expecting to generate Rs 2,000-crore worth business in home loan category during its two-day mega property show from February 26 at Hitex Exhibition Hall in Hyderabad.

"Though consumer spending fell sharply across India due to Covid-19, real estate sector has not seen a slowdown in the pandemic period. Moreover, Hyderabad realty market has outpaced other major cities in South India like Bengaluru," said Jogesh Chandra Sahu, General Manager (NW-I), SBI Hyderabad.

"Hyderabad Circle is maintaining a home loan portfolio of Rs 44,580 crore. During the current financial year, our circle sanctioned 19,000 home loans amounting to Rs 8,500 crore and 9,100 top up loans amounting to Rs 1,700 crore," he informed.

Sahu is confident to attract huge business at the property show as more than 45 builders, including all prominent ones, will be showcasing around 400-500 housing projects at the event. The bank is offering a waiver on home loan processing fees and other surprise offers to attract the customers. The SBI has been appointed as nodal agency for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) and it is taking the lead role in covering affordable Housing Loan scheme. For the last three years, it has sanctioned around 16,000 loans under PMAY and disbursed the subsidy of Rs 373 crore.

He further said that the bank is targeting home loan customers using digital model. It has online platforms such as Yono App and OCAS (Online Customer Acquisition System) using which customers can apply for home loans without visiting the branches. The SBI is introducing Retail Loan Management System (RLMS), a technological platform providing an end-to-end solution for home loans to improve the turnaround time in home loan acquiring and processing significantly.

To reach out every customer, the bank has set up dedicated home loan processing centres at major locations including Hyderabad, Warangal and Nizamabad. It is also proposing to establish additional centralised processing centres for linking remote branches in the circle. The entire sourcing and sanction will be done through "Image Based Processing System" in these Processing Centres, where the movement of physical files will be avoided. In order to speed up the sanction process, the bank has so far onboarded 335 projects under builder tie-up. "Out of these projects, we have onboarded 117 projects during the current financial year alone. This process will increase the customer confidence, as well as the brand image of the bank and the project. This also reduces sanctioning time, eliminates cost of legal and valuation fee," Sahu said.