5 Factors Affecting Home Loan Interest Rates

Many first time borrowers are hastily impressed by the interest rates advertised in newspapers and television ads. However, most people don’t get their home loan at those advantageous rates. There are a few factors to bear in mind to get the ideal home loan rates possible for your brand new home.

* Credit history

This factor is all about financial standing. It allows the lenders to see your repayment ability, which is one of the most important factors. The smart thing to do before you apply for a home loan is to improve your credit history. Get rid of those credit card debts and personal loans. There are a number of things that you can do to show yourself as a reliable candidate for a home loan. Hence, you should take all the necessary steps to let these factors work in your favour.

* Nature of employment

Since your income is the means of repaying your EMIs, the nature of your employment is essential to your lenders. If you’re working in a smaller organization, you may come across as a less reliable candidate as compared to someone working for a public sector bank or a government job since their income is considered more consistent. Thus, your organization, years of experience and appraisals affect your credibility and repayment ability. If you compare a professional to a SME business owner with the same income, a professional is sometimes deemed more credible. You can certainly make this bias work in your favour. Today, most employees are job-hopping only for a 5 to 10 percent increment in salary. You can either choose to work with a more established organization or apply for a loan along with a co-applicant, who is working in a reputed organization.

* Your lender and home loan market

Many banks and housing finance companies are offering home loans today. There is a huge market and substantial competition. So it makes sense to apply to several organizations and let the competition work in your favour. If you get an approval from more than one organization, you are in a good position to negotiate and get the best possible housing loan interest rates .

* RBI

There are some factors that affect your home loan rates considerably; however, these factors are not under your control. The Reserve Bank of India has several rules and regulations that affect rates for all kinds of loans such as SLR (Statutory Liquidity Ratio) Rate, Repo Rate, Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), etc., which you need to be aware of.

* Economy

The economy of India can also affect interest rates significantly. It is possible, though, to anticipate the possible changes to an extent and use them to your favour. So, make sure you use these factors where you can.