Chairman Dinesh Khara says SBI has been, and will be largest home loan lender

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

State Bank of India (SBI) has been, is, and will continue to lead the home loan market, chairman Dinesh Khara asserted on Friday, saying its mortgage book is worth over Rs 6.52 lakh crore as of the June quarter, clipping on-year at close to 14 per cent. His assertion came when reporters asked about his views on the mortgage market after the exit of the pure-play lender HDFC from the market following its merger with HDFC Bank on July 1.

HDFC Bank has not been active on the home loan front before the biggest merger (USD 40 billion) as after sourcing a home loan account it used to sell that to its parent HDFC for a fee. Accordingly, when it merged with the parent, the bank had a small home loan book only.

According to many analysts, as of March 31, 2023, the combined mortgage book of HDFC Bank has been pegged at Rs 7.3 lakh crore, but the bank has not revealed the numbers in the June quarter earnings, though the merger was effective from July 1 and HDFC shares got extinguished from July 13. Then SBI's book was only Rs 6.4 lakh crore.

SBI overtook the traditional market leader HDFC in home loan assets in February 2021 when its book crossed the Rs 5 lakh crore mark, marginally more than HDFC's then. That time the nation's largest lender enjoyed a market share of 23.5 per cent of the home loan market as against HDFC's 17 per cent.

«We have been the largest, we are and we will continue to have the largest home loan book,» Khara told PTI Video in an interaction after the earnings announcement, when it reported its highest ever profits of Rs 16,884 crore for the quarter. In the June quarter, Khara said their home loan book grew 13.47 per cent to Rs 6,52,548 crore (more than Rs 6.52 lakh crore) from Rs 6,40,680 crore in March 2023