Banking giant and country's largest lender, State Bank of India has geared up its retail lending with the launch of SBI ‘My Home' campaign.

The duration of the campaign will be around three-months, during which the lender will offer home loans to the eligible customers at zero processing fees and attractive interest rates.

The promotion has been timed with the forthcoming festival season in the country.

Under the SBI Hi-Five Home loan scheme, borrowers are offered home loans of up to Rs 5-lakh at a fixed interest rate of 8 percent interest for a period of up to five-years, following which the customer can opt either for a floating reference rate of 2.75 percent below the State Bank of India benchmark lending rates (State Bank Advance Rate -SBAR) or a fixed rate of 1.25 percent below SBAR.

Commenting on the move, P Nanda Kumaran, chief general manager, retail loans, said, "We see huge demand for Rs 5-lakh loans from the weaker sections and from non-metro areas. This prompted us to offer the special scheme. Out of 73,700 applications that SBI received in Q1 of this fiscal, nearly 25,000 applications are for loans up to Rs 5 lakh."

Under the SBI Easy Home Loan scheme, Jul 3, 2009 the bank will offer home loans up to Rs 50-lakh, at a fixed interest rate of 8 percent during the first year and at 8.5 percent per annum during the next two consecutive years, following which the customer has the option to choose between floating rate at 2.75 percent below SBAR (or at 1.25 percent fixed rate below SBAR).

Home loans borrowers can also benefit from lower interest rates by combining the loan facility with the SBI's Maxgain overdraft service.

Recently, the bank organized ‘SBI Home Fair 2009' between July 17 and 19 at Mayor Ramanathan Chettiar Centre.

"This launch is in continuation of its initiatives for putting the housing sector back on the growth trajectory," the bank said in a statement.

The benchmark prime lending of the bank is currently at 11.75 percent.