Next: Property and renting
Buying a home without getting played
Down payments and EMIs as plain arithmetic, the certificates that do the real protecting, and the builder clauses that are a reason to walk away entirely.
19 min
intermediate
Home loans: the 20-year arithmetic
Early EMIs are almost all interest, a longer tenure quietly doubles what the loan costs, and the repo rate reaches straight into your monthly payment.
3 lessons · about 16 minutes · written for reading age 13 · last checked 2026-08-11
What an EMI is made of
The EMI stays fixed while its insides shift, and the tenure dial quietly decides whether the interest bill comes to about ₹58 lakh or about ₹95 lakh.
6 min
Floating, fixed, and the repo pipe
Since 2019, new floating-rate home loans from banks have been pinned to the repo rate, so RBI's announcements reach your own EMI within a quarter.
5 min
Prepaying, and what the taxman gives back
Floating-rate prepayment is charge-free by rule, tenure-cutting beats EMI-cutting, and the 80C and 24(b) breaks live in the old regime only.
5 min
Check yourself
4 questions at the end. Every wrong answer explains itself.
Tools for this
Sources
- Reserve Bank of India — external benchmark lending and loan conduct rules — Reserve Bank of India · checked 2026-08-11
- Income Tax Department — official portal (sections 80C and 24(b)) — Income Tax Department · checked 2026-08-11