A
home of one’s own’ remains one of the few aspirations of every Indian customer
and very often than not, a home loan offers them an easy way to finance this
inspirational purchase.
When
it comes to home loans, there are many banks and housing finance companies that
offer loans on easy interest rates and repayment tenures.
HDFC
Home Loans:
HDFC,
being an early entrant to the area of home finance is by far the largest
housing finance company, having helped finance 4.9 million homes over the last
three and half decades. They have 366 offices servicing about 2400 cities and
towns of India.
HDFC
offers a range of housing loan ranging from purchase/construction of new/resale
homes, plot loans, home extension to premises for working professionals. They
also offer loans to non-resident Indians.
Being
a company dedicated exclusively to housing finance, HDFC scores by charging a
reasonable rate of interest and a flat processing fee. They also offer a faster
processing time for their home loans.
HDFC
offers the facility of pre-approved loans which lets the customer knows his
eligibility prior to selecting a property to purchase.
ICICI
Bank is India's largest private sector bank with total assets of Rs. 5,946.42
billion at March 31, 2014 and profit after tax Rs 98.10 billion for the year
ended March 31, 2014. ICICI Bank currently has a pan-India network of 3,845
Branches and 12,012 ATMs.
Entering
the home loan segment in early-2000s, the bank has made tremendous strides in
advancing home loans. This year, the bank’s home loan grew by 25%over last
year.
ICICI
bank offers preferential rates of 10.10% to its women borrowers whereas for men
it is 10.15%. The bank also doesn’t charge any legal verification fees from its
customer if the project is pre-approved.
ICICI
Bank also provides insurance cover on its home loans.
In
addition to home loans, both the lenders also provide loan against property
which allows customers to unlock the value of their immovable assets like
houses, plots and buildings.
Both
the lenders provide the option of fixed and floating interest rates to their
customers and the option to switch from one to another against payment of some
fees.
Both
lenders also offer the facility to customers to pre-pay the home loans.
Tax
Savings on Home Loans:
Indian
home loan customers can save tax under various provisions of the Income Tax Act by availing home loans.
If both spouses are working and are co-applicants, they may gain from such tax
deductions.
A
customer can save up to Rs 1 lakh on the principal and Rs 150,000 on the
interest of the home loan by way of taxes.
Both
HDFC and ICICI facilitate such tax savings by readily issuing home loan
statements to their customers and building tax calculators on home loan
components in their marketing materials/websites.
Conclusion:
Though
both banks offer reasonable interest rates, easy documentation and faster
processing time for home loans, ICICI bank may be slightly advantageous for
women customers with its preferential interest rate offer of 10.10%right now.
