However, the bank plans to go slow on commercial lending to the real-estate sector. With frequent advisories from the finance ministry and the RBI cautioning over exposure to the real-estate sector, banks have been going slow on lending to developers.

As a result real estate prices have begun to decline. “In the secondary market (market for existing property) housing prices have come down by 10-15 per cent in the past

six months. But price cuts in primary market (market for new homes) are still to occur. SBI’s move will be a bigger relief for existing home loan borrowers but for new borrowers, developers need to cut rates first before transactions pick up,” a senior real estate analyst based in Mumbai told The Indian Express.