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Can I afford this home?

A home loan approval tells you what a bank is comfortable lending. It does not tell you what your life can comfortably carry once stamp duty, registration, maintenance and property tax are all in the picture.

RealityCheck works out the cash you need on day one, what the property costs every month after that, and the highest price that still leaves your finances in good shape.

Eligibility is not the same as affordability

Loan eligibility is a calculation a lender performs about itself. It asks how much it can lend you while remaining confident of being repaid. It has no view on whether you will still be able to save afterwards, or what happens to you if your income pauses for four months.

Affordability is the calculation you need. It starts from the same EMI, then adds the costs a lender does not care about: society maintenance every month, property tax every year, insurance, and the substantial cash for stamp duty and registration that has to be found before you get the keys.

RealityCheck reports both the monthly picture and the day-one cash requirement, then searches for the highest property price that still scores comfortably against your income, savings and buffer. That number is usually well below what a bank would approve, and it is the more useful one to shop with.

Questions about this calculation

Why show a maximum home price instead of a maximum loan?
A bank tells you the largest loan it is willing to give you, which is a statement about its risk appetite. It does not account for the stamp duty and registration you pay in cash on day one, the maintenance and property tax you pay every month afterwards, or the emergency buffer you would be left with. Maximum comfortable home price answers the question you actually have.
How much cash do I need beyond the down payment?
Stamp duty, registration, brokerage and legal fees typically add somewhere around 6-8% of the property price, varying by state, and all of it is payable in cash rather than financed. On a 1 crore property that is often 6-8 lakh on top of the down payment. The calculator adds this to your upfront requirement and warns you if your savings cannot cover it.
What EMI-to-income ratio is safe for a home loan?
Home loans usually justify a higher share of income than other borrowing, because the payment replaces rent and builds equity. The scoring here treats total housing cost under about 30% of take-home pay as comfortable and flags anything approaching 40% or more, while also weighing your existing EMIs, savings and buffer.
Does this assume property prices go up?
No. Affordability here does not depend on appreciation at all, because whether you can pay the EMI has nothing to do with what the property is worth later. Equity is counted only as the down payment plus the principal you have actually repaid. If you want to model appreciation explicitly, use the Rent vs Buy calculator, where it is a stated assumption.
Are tax benefits on the home loan included?
Yes, and the answer turns almost entirely on which tax regime you are on. Under the new regime — the default one since FY 2023-24 — a home loan on a property you live in carries no deduction at all: no section 24(b) on interest, no 80C on principal. Under the old regime you can deduct up to 2,00,000 of interest a year under 24(b), plus principal repayment and the year's stamp duty inside the 1,50,000 80C limit. The calculator asks which regime you are on and applies the relief year by year.
Why does the 80C benefit look smaller than I expected?
Because the 1,50,000 limit is shared, not additional. EPF, PPF, ELSS, insurance premiums and children's tuition fees all draw on the same pot, and for most people earning enough to buy a crore-plus property, EPF alone fills it. When that happens the principal repayment saves nothing further at the margin, however large it is. The calculator asks how much of your limit is already used and takes the answer seriously — most calculators quietly assume the whole limit is free.
Should I switch to the old regime to claim the home loan deduction?
That is not a question this calculator can answer, and it says so. The old regime buys you the home-loan deductions but costs you the lower slab rates of the new regime and every exemption you would otherwise forgo. Whether the trade is worth it depends on your full deduction picture — HRA, 80D, NPS and the rest — which RealityCheck does not know. What it can do is show you exactly what the home-loan relief alone is worth, so you can take that figure into the wider comparison.
Why is 20% the minimum down payment?
Indian lenders generally cap a home loan at 80% of the registered property value, so the remaining 20% must come from your own funds. The calculator warns you if the down payment you have entered falls below that, since such a loan may simply not be approved.

RealityCheck is a decision-support tool, not financial advice. Results depend entirely on the figures and assumptions you enter, and are a starting point for your own thinking rather than a conclusion.