State Bank of India wants to build up 5% of the UK market within 10 years and its own analysis shows London and the South East to be safe spots to target.
Mrutyunjay Mahapatra, SBI's regional head for the UK, told the Daily Mail yesterday: “We looked back over time and found that property prices in London had not gone down over any five-year time period.
“Property buyers can be encouraged by two things: there will be expansion of second home ownership, and secondly, turmoil in Europe, Asia and Africa will continue. That will mean more buyers coming here. London prices will definitely go up.”
Last month SBI was forced to pull its buy-to-let mortgages due to huge demand. But Mr Mahapatra confirmed to the Daily Mail that SBI will start lending again to landlords 'within 45 days' once the backlog of applications has been cleared.
SBI entered the landlord market a year ago and was offering a 3.99% plus base rate, 5-year tracker at 70% LTV.
Its residential mortgages will have a max LTV of 85% while the max LTV on its buy-to-let offering will be reduced to 65%.
