Mumbai: Public-sector lender, Bank of India (BoI) is set to become the latest entrant in the home loan rate war, after biggies like SBI and HDFC, by offering 8% fixed rate for the first two years.

BoI is planning to offer the eight per cent fixed rate for loans upto Rs30 lakh and is expected to come with an announcement by end of this month, BoI’S executive director, B A Prabhakar told PTI in Mumbai.

“We plan to announce this scheme (8% fixed rate for two years) probably by the end of this month. This would be applicable for loans upto Rs30 lakh,” Prabhakar said.

After the offer period, the rates will be calculated on a floating basis, based on the then benchmark prime lending rate, Prabhakar said.

With this, BoI will be joining the club of other leading banks in the country like State Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak IDBI Bank and homeloan financier, Housing Development Finance Corporation, who have already come with similar schemes.

This will intensify the existing competition among these players in the race to woo aspiring home buyers. A week back, IDBI Bank said it would offer 8.25% fixed rate for all its new loans till March 2012.