Most banks and housing finance companies lend to salaried or self-employed Indian residents between roughly 21 and 70 years of age (the upper limit is typically tied to when the loan tenure would end relative to your retirement age or a fixed cap), with a demonstrated stable income source. Beyond age and employment type, lenders assess your Fixed Obligation to Income Ratio (FOIR) — your total EMI and existing debt commitments as a share of your monthly income — and generally cap this around 50%.
Your credit score matters more than many first-time borrowers expect: most lenders in the current market prefer a CIBIL score of 725 or above to offer their best interest rates, and a lower score doesn't necessarily disqualify you but will likely mean a higher rate or a smaller sanctioned amount.
Expect to provide KYC documents (PAN card, Aadhaar, and address proof), income proof (salary slips and Form 16 for salaried applicants, or ITRs and business financials for self-employed applicants — typically the last 2–3 years), and bank statements for the last 6 months showing salary credits or business inflows.
On the property side, the lender will want the Agreement for Sale, the project's RERA registration details, title and encumbrance documents for the specific unit, and — for under-construction properties — the payment schedule tied to construction stages. Lenders will not disburse funds against a project that isn't RERA-registered, which is one more reason RERA verification comes before any financial commitment.
Home loan interest rates in India are generally offered as either fixed or floating, with the large majority of loans in the market being floating-rate, tied to an external benchmark (most commonly the RBI's repo rate) plus a spread set by the lender. When the repo rate moves, floating-rate EMIs adjust accordingly — either the tenure or the EMI amount changes, depending on how your lender structures the adjustment.
Rates vary by lender, loan amount, your credit profile, and whether you're a salaried or self-employed applicant (salaried applicants with strong credit typically get marginally better pricing). It's worth comparing at least three lenders rather than defaulting to whichever bank you already have a savings account with, since the spread over the benchmark rate can vary meaningfully between institutions.
The Loan-to-Value (LTV) ratio determines what share of the property's value a lender will finance, and RBI sets ceilings on this: up to 90% for properties valued at ₹30 lakh or below, up to 80% for properties between ₹30 lakh and ₹75 lakh, and up to 75% for properties above ₹75 lakh.
This means the higher your property's value, the larger your own contribution needs to be as a percentage — and critically, LTV is calculated on the property value alone, not including stamp duty, registration, or other transaction costs, which you must fund separately. A ₹1 crore flat, for example, would typically require at least ₹25 lakh from your own funds toward the property price, plus roughly ₹6–7 lakh more for stamp duty and registration.
Your EMI is a function of three variables: loan amount, interest rate, and tenure. Extending your tenure lowers your monthly EMI but increases the total interest you pay over the life of the loan — a trade-off worth modeling explicitly rather than simply choosing the longest tenure offered to minimize the monthly number.
A sensible starting point is keeping your total EMI (this loan plus any existing obligations) within 40–50% of your monthly take-home pay, leaving headroom for other expenses, savings, and unexpected costs. Use an EMI calculator — like the one on each property's detail page on this site — to model a few different tenure and rate scenarios before committing to one.
Interest rate matters, but it isn't the only variable. Compare processing fees (often 0.5–1% of the loan amount), prepayment and foreclosure charges (RBI has banned these on floating-rate loans to individual borrowers, but it's still worth confirming with the specific lender), and how responsive the lender's disbursement process is for under-construction properties tied to construction milestones.
Also weigh your existing banking relationship: an existing customer with a strong repayment history at a bank sometimes gets faster processing and marginally better terms, though it's still worth shopping around rather than assuming loyalty automatically gets you the best deal.