Buying a house is perhaps the single biggest investment an individual makes and like anywhere else in the world, home loan or mortgage products have only made it easier for average salaried Indians to own a home they can call their own. One should, however, not forget the associated long term liability that needs to be serviced and it would only help to keep some of the following things in mind when taking a home loan:
1. Affordability
What you can afford should be determined by your ability to service the re-payments of the liability you undertake with a home loan. This would be governed by the loan amount and the interest rate applicable on your home loan. Taking a loan with a view of selling the house a few years down the line at a higher price to help you settle your liability may not always work, especially if the property prices start moving downwards or even if they remain static – as we have seen over the last couple of years the world over.
Given the long term nature of the liability, it also makes sense to protect yourself and your family from any unforeseen circumstances. A life insurance plan that covers the re-payment of loan in the event of an unfortunate death of the borrower can at least help the family retain their home.
2. Co-application
What you can afford will also be reviewed by the Bank that is providing you the home loan. This would depend on your past and current financial position and ability to service the loan in the future i.e. ability to pay back the loan with applicable interest. In case you want a loan amount higher than what you are being offered as an individual, you may want to have your spouse or parents as co-applicants. This helps you increase the overall limit that the bank can offer since there is more than one person sharing the repayment of loan and the combined limit will obviously be higher. Needless to say, this can only work if the co-applicants have an independent source of income.
Having co-applicants can also make sense from a taxation perspective with each applicant being able to avail the tax benefit available on interest payment of an EMI.
3. Duration
Once again, keeping in mind how much you can afford to pay each month, try and keep the duration of the loan as low as possible. With a lower duration of loan, the EMI may be higher but what you would pay as interest over the term of your loan would be substantially lower. If you can’t afford the higher EMI and have to necessarily take a higher duration loan, it would help to try and manage your savings in a way that help you pre-pay the loan with intermediate payments in the initial years itself so as to reduce your overall interest burden.
4. Pre-payment and foreclosure charges
One of the important features that you should consider in your home loan product is the availability of pre-payment facility. While some banks may not allow you to prepay your loans, others could be providing you the facility to prepay a certain percentage of your principal amount every year with or without a penalty charge. It would be worth your while to compare this feature across the product options you are evaluating since this flexibility can help you reduce your interest burden if you can manage to close your loan earlier.
5. Fixed vs. Flexible
The choice on this one is not really easy. Fixed interest rate products are usually 1-3% higher than floating interest rate products but bring a certain level of certainty to your financial planning since you are more or less certain of your monthly outgo. On the other hand, floating interest rate products, though cheaper are linked to a base rate or benchmark rate and can go up or down with a change in the base rate.
It would, therefore make sense to go in for a fixed rate product only if you think the interest rates in the economy are bound to go up over the next few years. Even in this case, if the spread between the fixed and floating rates is fairly high, floating rate options continue to be better. For e.g. if the rate on fixed and floating rate products is 12.5% and 10% respectively, then as long as the increase in base rates is lower than 2.5%, floating rate products continue to be cheaper.
You may also want to check the terms and conditions associated with a fixed rate product. At times, the fixed rate is applicable only for a limited number of years, which in any case will defeat any assumption of certainty that you may want to build into your financial planning.
6. Loan Transfers
Having taken a loan, you may at some stage be tempted to transfer your loan to another bank or lending institution which is offering you a lower interest rate than you currently have. While taking this decision do make sure that you factor in any foreclosure costs associated with your existing loans (charges linked with an early closure of your loan). The bank you are transferring your loan to may also be charging you a processing fees. Do take these costs into account and ensure that the savings you make on lower interest rate are higher than the costs associated with the loan transfer.
7. Implications of delayed payments
Delayed or missed payments can impact you not only financially but can also affect your credit history. On the one hand, you may have to pay a penalty or fees associated with delayed or missed payments; while on the other your credit history will reflect these missed or delayed payments.
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