A host of customer-centric initiatives that include granting faster approvals has seen the State Bank of India (SBI) report a 50 per cent jump in its home loan portfolio here in West Bengal for FY-15.

Home loan disbursals in the State has shot up to Rs 2,100 crore for FY-15; a Rs 700 crore increase over the Rs 1,400 crore it reported in the year-ago period.

“There has been a 50 per cent rise in home loan disbursals this fiscal to Rs 2,100 crore. We hope to clock around Rs 3,000 crore (or a 42 per cent growth over FY-15) in 2015-16,” Prashant Kumar, Chief General Manager, SBI, told Business Line on the sidelines of Home Front 2015.

Home Front fair

Home Front is an annual property fair organised by the Bengal chapter of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI).

The average ticket size too has gone up by approximately 20 per cent to approximately Rs 20 lakh over the last one year.

Streamlining the process

According to him, one of the major steps that the bank has taken is to reduce time taken for granting home loans. The time has now been brought down to 17 days; from a previous 31 days

“In another six months time we intend to bring down the number of days to 10,” Kumar said.

The bank, he said, has six processing cells and it has even streamlined its processes by bringing the sales and marketing departments under a single roof.

Moreover, it has started providing the facility of processing the documents directly at a customer’s home, even if it is on a holiday.

This apart, the bank is also looking at growth in home loans from pre-approved housing projects.

It is also mulling the option of going for project financing (housing); because such projects can be “self-liquidated” by the housing loans.

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