Mumbai, Sept 08: Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL) has reduced its rate of interest on home loans by 0.5 per cent and the retail prime lending rate of the company has come down to 10 per cent from 10.5 per cent. According to its new rate structure, which will be effective from today, the interest on a five-year loan would be 8.75 (annually fixed) while the variable rate would be 9.50 per cent, DHFL said in a release here.

The company said it has also decided to open branches in Chandigarh and Kolkata to push its operations in Northern and Eastern India. "DHFL wishes to leverage its strong base in southern and Western India," its managing director Kapil Wadhawan said, adding that branches were now online with a new ERP System for processing house loans.

"This will allow us to delegate sanctioning and disbursing powers to our branches, speeding up delivery and at the same time reducing the costs of delivery per loan," he added. Bureau Report