It has been reported that the second-largest lender in the country, ICICI Bank has finally earthed a fixed-rate retail home loan product, which would allow customers to pick a fixed rate of interest for one or two years following which it will charge the running base rate.

“We are not offering discounted rates in the fixed term like others, so we can’t call this a teaser loan”, said a top official of the bank.

While the close rival HDFC is monitoring the situation, before taking a final call on following the suite or not, SBI had take their decision recently.

Though HDFC had stopped offering floating-and-fixed rate loan scheme in late 2010, the State Bank of India only offers home loans at floating rates today.

However, sentiments in response to the new ICICI product in the market are not all that convincing. Few are of the opinion that ICICI has pressed panic button, while others are saying that it would benefit customers, as they would go for a floating rate loan rather than such a fixed lock-in.

Contrary to the popular belief that rising interest rates must have shattered hopes of millions of people to own a house, reports have indicated that SBI has witnessed a 20.37% growth in its home loan portfolio during the quarter ended June.