The country's biggest mortgage lender, the Housing Development Finance Corp­oration (HDFC), has announced a festive offer in line with peers like SBI with home loans starting from 6.70 percent. Last week, SBI as part of the festival bonanza offered a concessional home loan rate of 6.70 percent under its festive offer.

This was followed by other lenders like Punjab National Bank and Bank of Baroda. "Housing is much more affordable today than it ever was. In the last couple of years, property prices have more or less remained the same in major pockets across the country while income levels have gone up," said Renu Sud Karnad, managing director, HDFC Ltd. Record low interest rates, subsidies under PMAY and the tax benefits have also helped, she said.

Under the festive scheme, HDFC said, "Customers can avail HDFC Home Loan starting at 6.70 percent per annum effective September 20, 2021. This offer will be applicable to all new loan applications irrespective of the loan amount or employment category," HDFC said. The special festive offer at 6.70 percent is for all loan slabs and for all customers with credit score of 800 and above. Before this special offer, the rate for salaried customers for loan above Rs 75 lakh and credit score of 800 and above was 7.15 percent and for self-employed was 7.30 percent.

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