These days, most homebuyers avail of a home loan to fund the purchase of their home. Even those who can afford the upfront cost prefer to take the home loan route, simply because housing loans allow borrowers to keep their savings safe for a rainy day and pay for their home in a convenient manner. Further, home loans are the cheapest of all loans — these loans draw a very low rate of interest and therefore, turn out to be very cost-effective in the long run. If you are planning to avail of a home loan, you must familiarize yourself with the home loan process in India. 

Home Loan Process Explained 

• If you want to avail of a home loan to buy a home, the first thing you must do is make an application with the lender of your choice. Applying for the loan would require you to fill out an application form with details, such as your name, phone number, email address, etc. 
• Once you have made an application, someone from your lender’s team will connect with you and explain the rest of the process. They will also collect documents from you. To experience an entirely hassle-free loan experience, keep all the documents ready with you. For a housing loan, you will be required to provide KYC documents, such as a passport, Aadhar Card, driving license, Voter ID, etc. Along with this, you will also be required to provide salary slips, if you are salaried, and profit and loss statements, if you are self-employed. You will also be required to submit bank account statements. Different lenders ask for different documents. Therefore, it is advised that you check your lender’s documentation requirements for a housing loan before beginning the home loan verification process. 
• Once you have submitted all the required documents, your lender will verify those and make sure that the information provided by you is correct. During this step, your lender will also check your credit score and decide the terms and conditions of the loan based on your credit score as well as other factors, such as monthly income, existing debt, age, etc. 
• If your lender is satisfied with all the documents and information provided, they will release a loan sanction letter. This loan letter will contain important details, such as the loan amount, the rate of interest the lender plans to offer you, the loan tenor, etc. 
• If you are happy with the terms and conditions mentioned in the loan sanction letter, sign it and send a copy back to the lender. 
• During the next step, you will be required to pay a loan processing fee. Some lenders charge this fee during the time of applying for the loan. 
• Once you have paid the fee, the lender will carry out a legal and technical check during which they will check the property for any kind of issues. 
• Once this is done, your lender will ask you to come to their office to sign the loan agreement, after which they will disburse the loan money into your account. Once this is done, your EMIs will begin and the process of home loan repayment will start from here. 

Though the Reserve Bank of India has been increasing the repo rate to curb inflation, which has led to home loans becoming expensive, the home loan interest rates are still quite low and therefore, now is a good time to apply for a housing loan in India.