e-SBTR-now make Maha Stamp Duty & Registration payment

e-SBTR (Electronic Secured Bank Treasury Receipt), a service for a single window payment of both stamp duty and registration fee for home purchase in Maharashtra, which was hitherto offered by IDBI Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India and others, will now be available with Union Bank of India also.

The e-SBTR allows payment without any ceiling and is available 24x7x365 through internet banking service. With this facility, a property buyer in Maharashtra can do all the necessary paper work and formalities online and get the endorsement on the final document at the branch level instantly.

The e-SBTR arrangement adds to the convenience of home buyers as the system eliminates the requirement of standing in queues to pay stamp duty and registration on property purchase.

“The system initially starts across 508 of our branches in Maharashtra and will soon be extended to other states as well,” said V K Kathuria, executive director, Union Bank of India.

Fixed Rate for longer term Home Loans from SBI

If you are wondering whether With the new benchmark rates being reviewed every month, should new home loan borrowers keep checking rates or will the annual reset take care of everything, Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman of country’s largest lender State Bank of India explains it all here.

The Base Rate is reviewed quarterly and banks cannot lend below it. The Marginal Cost of Lending Rate (MCLR) which is a rate derived out of incremental cost of deposits, and is reviewed every month, are apples and oranges. Borrowers will have to keep checking the rates. They’ll have to understand what the MCLR is and identify their risk appetite.

If they believe that it is better to know for sure what their future EMIs will be, then they may opt to fix their rate for a longer tenure. A borrower can also choose MCLr, which is a floating rate; but for optimum management, the consumer will have to keep a track of the oscillating rates.

SBI announces cheaper home loans

After the Reserve Bank of India prescribed new system to improve transmission of monetary policy that is Instead of one benchmark rate, banks would indicate at least five benchmark rates varying according to tenures called Marginal Cost of funds based Lending Rates (MCLR), home loans  from the country’s largest lender, State Bank of India are set to be cheaper by 10 basis points.

Under the Marginal Cost of Funds based lending Rate (MCLR) regime, banks would quote rate starting with a rate for overnight tenor, one month, three month, six months and one year buckets. Banks can give more rates if they wish.

SBI’s benchmark rate would range between 8.85% (for overnight) to 9.35% (for three years).

Presently, SBI offers home loan at 9.55% (base rate of 9.3% plus 25 basis point premium for home loan). Under revised guidelines, it could be with MCLR for one year – 9.2% plus 25 basis point premium makes it 9.45 basis points for home loans sanctioned from April one. “Their would be savings of Rs 600 in Equated Monthly Installment (EMI) on one year loan,” said Anshula Kant, the Chief financial Officer & Deputy Managing Director, SBI.

Kingfisher House on sale

Located near the domestic airport at Mumbai’s Vile Parle area, The headquarter of defunct Kingfisher Airlines popularly known as the Kingfisher House is being put up for e-auction by State Bank of India through which interested buyers will bid for it online. The base price for this multi-storey building, with a built up area of over 17,000 sq.ft, has been set at Rs.150 crore. The property is expected to generate interest among corporate houses and retailers, mainly because of its proximity to the highway.

Although not a very large property, Kingfisher House will find buyers mainly because of its strategic location for many businesses specially related to aeronautics, airlines-related businesses, logistics or even corporate houses and banks.

However, real estate advisers feel that the price of the property as quoted by the auctioneer is on the higher side. It is way above the market rate around the area where the Average commercial property rates in and around Vile Parle is at about Rs.28, 000 per sq.ft, according to various online property listings.

In February 2015, a consortium of 17 banks led by the country’s largest public sector lender State Bank of India (SBI) had taken possession of Kingfisher House in a bid to recover loans granted to the airline. Last month, SBI Capital Markets Ltd (SBICap), an investment bank unit of SBI, issued a public notice saying the property would be sold through an e-auction.

As per the notice for this e-auction, Kingfisher House also has unpaid dues of property tax of Rs.67 lakh.

State Bank of India

According to latest reports, in Odisha SBI, a public sector lender had advanced home loans of worth Rs 400 cr for year 2014 – 2015 and now country’s largest public sector lender SBI (State Bank of India) has set a target to extend Rs 500 cr worth home loans in Odisha for the year 2015 – 2016.

As per the statement of the BVG Reddy, Chief General Manager of State Bank of India, Bhubaneswar circle, “At the end of November 2015, our bank has already extended Rs 280 crore home loans and at this point of time we are expecting the closer with Rs 500 crore advances to the sector. This public sector lender had advanced a home loan of worth Rs 400 crore in the year 2014 – 2015 however; the NPA rate for the same sector was about one to two per cent. State Bank of India has extended its finance portfolio with tune of Rs 3325 crore which comes under home loan portfolio on the current date.

According to reports, SBI is all set to organize its own property expo “Utsav -2015”on date December 11 to 13 at Bhubaneswar. In present, about 40 real estate developers and builders which are affiliated to CREDAI (Confederation of Real Estate Developers Associations of India), NAREDCO (National Real Estate Development Council), Real Estate Developers Association of Odisha and Association For Odisha Real Estate Developers are seems to participate in the property expo “Utsav -2015”.

Last year at the same event people has booked more than 200 housing units and loan of Rs 30-40 crore were sanctioned. Currentl y, SBI is operating in more than 800 branches in the state Odisha and has an NPA of more than 6 percent with maximum slippages in the agriculture sector, education loans, micro, small & medium enterprises (MSME) sector and others.

Air India – Real Estate

Air India, the national carrier is ready to take off its plan for real estate monetization, as AI has finalized a deal to sell its 4 apartments in South Mumbai. After three years of gap, again Air India has finally started to sell its properties in Mumbai. Following by many unsuccessful attempts, this national carrier has finalized made a deal with public sector lender State Bank of India (SBI) to sell its 4 apartments, which is located in south Mumbai and the price of deal is Rs 88 crore.

Recently, the Union Cabinet approved the sale of these properties and after that now it is expected that apartments will be handed over to the State Bank of India in the month of December 2015, as per the statement of a top official. As per the statement of an Air India spokesperson, “This is first time when we have actually made deal as per terms and conditions laid in the turnaround plan”.

All the four apartments are 3 BHK flats in Sterling Apartments with measuring carpet area of 2,033 sq ft and the property is located at Peddar Road, South Mumbai. These properties were the houses of top executives of Air India, but now these key officials of national carrier have relocated to New Delhi and after that these apartments were identified as surplus and were put up for deal with SBI.

Turnaround Plan of Air India:

For its turnaround plan, Air India also sought cabinet approval to sale its land in Kolkata which is worth Rs. 25 crore and a residential property in Mauritius (worth Rs. 3.5 crore) to the NBCC (National Building Construction Corporation). Air India, needs to sell the property or real estate assets of Rs 5,000 crore to repay the high-cost debt as well as to generate few more funds for further investment and to meet the working capital, as a part of its turnaround plan of AI. It is expected that in near future AI will sell parcels of land as well as residential and commercial properties in Indian and abroad.

Air India

Air India is surviving on a bailout package approved by the government in 2012. As part of its turnaround plans to reduce a debt burden of 40,000 crore, the grieving PSU plans to sell real estate assets worth Rs 5,000 crore to generate funds. Executing on the plans, AI has decided to sell four residential apartments in Mumbai to State Bank of India (SBI) for Rs. 90 crore.

The flats, each having a carpet area of 2033 sq ft situated at Sterling Apartments on Peddar Road in South Mumbai that hitherto housed top executives of the national carrier, will now be official residences of SBI top executives.

An AI official confirmed that the airline in August 2013 had invited bids for these flats through e-auctions and the Bank emerged as the highest bidder. “We have received a nod from the Cabinet as well as all requisite approvals to sell & transfer the rights on these flats to SBI,” said the senior Air India official.

Property-festival-offers

Despite real estate developers trying all kinds of marketing gimmicks like funding schemes with upfront payment as low as 5 percent of home price, interest waiver for 2-3 years and freebies, sale velocity has not picked up. The residential property market has been deserted- by investors due to slow moving market with stagnant or dipping prices and by end users because of unaffordable prices.

Even the unexpected 50 basis point repo rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may not see a significant improvement in demand in the festival season. Earlier, only a part of the multiple rate cuts amounting to 75 basis points effected this year before September 29, was passed on to the consumers by the banks.

However, within a week of the announcement by RBI, the hopes of real estate developers and home buyers seem to have been shattered as the banks have still not transmitted the cut to the borrowers.

The State Bank of India (SBI), which earlier announced a 40 basis points cut in its base rate, has now revised its decision by reducing the base rate cut by 50 percent to protect its margins.

Even more confusing is the SBI’s new policy to offer home loans at 20 basis points higher than the base rate to women and 25 basis points higher than the base rate to men in contrast to its earlier policy of offering home loans to women at base rate and to men at five basis points above base rate.

Although other banks had also announced 20-30 basis points cut in their base rates, home loan rates are still hovering well over nine percent. The inability of the banks to transmit the RBI rate cut to home buyers is sending negative signals across the market.

The extraordinarily high inventory and muted sales call for price rationalisation. RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had also asked developers to cut prices to spur sales. Even Credai chairman Irfan Razack, advised developers to offload high inventory by rationalising prices. Developers however, are holding on to prices as steep rise in input costs and high cost of loan servicing lowers their margins to a great extent.

Domestic home buyers who form the bulk of customers, are therefore not enthused enough to jump in the fray. They are waiting for prices to fall and in the backdrop of interest rate dampner; it looks unlikely that this festive season will turn out to be a Savior for both developers and home buyers.