Chennai Floods: Company offers home loans at reduced rate to affected areas

Chennai, Dec 10; Sundaram BNP Paribas Home Finance on Thursday announced housing finance up to Rs.10 lakh at concessional rate for flood-affected residents of Tamil Nadu.

In a statement here, the home loan company said it would lend up to Rs.10 lakh at 8.5 percent per annum fixed rate to help the flood-affected reconstruct, repair, renovate and upgrade their dwelling units.

The regular rate of interest is 9.7 percent.

Heavy rains have battered Chennai, Kanchipuram, Cuddalore and Thiruvallur districts for the past one month, resulting in floods that have killed over 347 people and destroyed assets worth several thousand crores of rupees.

Kanchipuram, famed for silk saris and temples, is located 70 km from Chennai. Thiruvallur and Cuddalore are 39 and 185 km away from the state capital respectively.

This special scheme is valid for disbursements made till June 30, 2016. The tenure of the loan will be 3-7 years.

"We have received concessional refinance facility from National Housing Bank, which has extended such a scheme at this critical juncture where finance is a dire need for rebuilding homes," Srinivas Acharya, Managing Director, Sundaram Home Finance was quoted as saying in the statement.

Earlier this week, the company decided to waive overdue interest levied for any delay in payment of equated monthly instalments (EMI) for November and December 2015 for customers who had paid EMIs up to October 2015.

The company is a 50.1 percent - 49.9 percent joint venture between Sundaram Finance and BNP Paribas of France.

IANS