Canara Bank launches housing loan schemes for NRIs, HNIs

State-owned Canara Bank has launched two new housing schemes for non-resident Indians (NRIs) and high net-worth individuals (HNIs), in a bid to cash in on the increased investment demand from these sections.

Housing loan demand from NRIs has increased with a rise in overseas home bookings with builders. In fact, enquiries regarding housing loans from NRIs with builders have grown by 20 per cent, Canara Bank chairman and managing director R K Dubey said.

Under the schemes, home loan of up to Rs30 lakh would be made available to an NRI at the base rate of 9.95 per cent, while for loans above Rs30 lakh and up to Rs75 lakh the interest rate would be 10 per cent.

Loans above Rs75 lakh would attract 10.20 per cent interest, Dubey said.

Canara Bank also announced a Rs1 crore premium housing loan scheme for high net-worth individuals with annual income of Rs25 lakh and above, Dubey said, adding that Rs11 crore has been fixed as the minimum loan amount under the premium housing loan scheme.

The rate of interest charged would be 10.05 per cent.

Canara Bank has waived processing charges for both the schemes till 31 October, he added.

Canara Bank had earlier said it did not plan to increase its lending or deposit rates for now, although the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had, on Friday, hiked its repo rate by 25 basis points.

Dubey also had, on Saturday, said the bank was looking to expand its network to 4,500 branches by the end of the current financial year, from the current 4,101 branches, The bank also has around 3,961 ATMs.

Dubey expects the bank to achieve a net interest margin of 2.3 per cent this fiscal.

Canara Bank, which is among the largest commercial banks in the country, has a network of 4,101 branches and an almost equal number of ATMs (3,961).

Despite higher outgoes due to volatility in G-sec rates and increased provisioning towards stressed assets, Dubey expects Canara Bank to achieve a net interest margin of 2.3 per cent for the fiscal.