HDFC reduces lending rate from Wednesday

New Delhi, March 24 (IANS) Housing finance company HDFC Tuesday announced a reduction in its retail prime lending rates (RPLR) by 50 basis points (bps) from March 25.

This is the second time in three months that HDFC has reduced its RPLR. With this reduction, the RPLR has been brought down by 100 bps since December.

'We have over the last few months seen that the measures taken by the government, drop in interest rates, correction in property prices and developers introducing affordable housing by resizing the area have resulted in an increased interest from first-time house buyers,' HDFC joint managing director Renu Sud Karnad said explaining the rate cut.

The advantage of the RPLR reduction will accrue to all the existing floating rate customers over the next three months based on their respective reset dates, a company statement said.

Interest rates on existing loans to non-resident Indians have also been reduced, it added.

HDFC reduced its deposit rates across maturities earlier this month. On an incremental basis, retail deposits for the first nine months - April-December 2008 - formed 55 percent of HDFC's funding requirement, the statement said.