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How To MANAGE INCREASING EMIs

May 24, 2022 08:54 IST

Gaurav Mohta lists three ways to ensure a smooth financial situation for your family despite rising interest rates.

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Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

After two years of favourable interest rates and the RBI's 'accommodative' approach, we have seen a recent hike in the repo rate by 40 basis points (100 basis points = one per cent). However, for the affordable home finance industry the effects are bound to be felt in a much muted manner.

 

We are confident of a steady demand for housing units in the affordable segment due to these two factors:

Let me try and explain this a bit. The rate hikes expected for this segment are gradual and in single digits for the foreseeable future. With the loan amount in this segment being roughly around Rs 10-15 lakh on an average, even an interest rate hike by 50 basis points is likely to only increase the EMI up to Rs 500-Rs 750 per month.

Also, post pandemic there had been some pent up demand driving demand. The festive seasons have also done fairly well and we expect the same momentum to continue.

Nonetheless, with rising costs and general inflation in the economy, managing your home loan can be very instrumental to your overall expenditure in the coming months or even years.

There are three ways in which you can ensure a smooth financial situation for your family despite the rising interest rates. While two of them involve slight changes in your current home buying framework, the third one can not only act as superpower to help you navigate high interest rates but also help save a large amount on the interest outflow:

1. Opt for a smaller loan: Let's say you are comfortable paying an EMI of Rs 15,000 but choose a loan amount which incurs a lesser EMI, like say Rs 12,000.

Keeping a buffer, especially for the affordable housing customers is very important. Probably a little increase in your down payment amount will offset this.

2. Choose your space smartly: For customers who are yet to finalise their property or plot size, be smart. Choose what you need and not what you aspire for! This could help in keeping both your financial obligations and your blood pressure under control.

You can always upgrade when you are more comfortable and financially stable.

3. Manage your overall interest outflow: Rate hike means you pay higher interests. The easiest way to counter this is prepayments. Prepayments can help reduce not only the overall interest outflow, but also the tenure of the loan.

A payment made over and above the regular EMI, gets deducted directly from the principal amount borrowed. Meaning, the next EMI you pay will be calculated on a reduced principal amount and this is why prepayment becomes your superpower.

Now, based on your financial stability, you can either choose to make the prepayments as per your situation every month or you could choose to use your superpower -- small, regular, automated prepayments, or auto prepay, as small as Rs 500 per month.

Auto prepay acts as a standing instruction that deducts a predetermined amount of money from your bank account towards your home loan prepayment on a fixed date every month.

Being a free voluntary service, not only are you able to make regular prepayments without any extra charge but you can also choose to cancel this service due to any unfortunate emergency.

Let me show you how this works:

Rohit has taken a loan of Rs 2,500,000 (Rs 25 lakh) at 10 per cent rate of interest for 20 years. The formula for calculating EMI is P × r × (1 + r)n/((1 + r)n – 1). Using this we get the EMI for Rohit as Rs 24,126.

As he pays his first EMI, only Rs 3,292 goes towards paying off the total principal amount due and the remaining Rs 20,833 goes as interest paid.

As the months go by, though the EMI remains the same, within it the interest component decreases as you repay more and more of your principal.

For Rohit in our example, in the next months the amounts of Rs 3,292 and Rs 20,833 will become Rs 3,320 and Rs 20,806... Rs 3,347 and Rs 20,778 and Rs 3,375 and Rs 20,750 and so on till the end of 240 months (20 years).

However, if he chooses to make a prepayment of Rs 2,000 every month, he will be able to close his loan in 193 months, saving him 47 months of EMIs and Rs 7,63,612 in interest payments.

 

 You can also observe this amortisation table below for detailed reference:

AMORTISATION SCHEDULE
Months Opening POS EMI Interest Principal Dual EMI Closing POS
1 Rs 25,00,000 Rs 24,126 Rs 20,833 Rs 3,292 Rs 2,000 Rs 24,94,708
2 Rs 24,94,708 Rs 24,126 Rs 20,789 Rs 3,336 Rs 2,000 Rs 24,89,371
3 Rs 24,89,371 Rs 24,126 Rs 20,745 Rs 3,381 Rs 2,000 Rs 24,83,991
4 Rs 24,83,991 Rs 24,126 Rs 20,700 Rs 3,426 Rs 2,000 Rs 24,78,565
5 Rs 24,78,565 Rs 24,126 Rs 20,655 Rs 3,471 Rs 2,000 Rs 24,73,094
6 Rs 24,73,094 Rs 24,126 Rs 20,609 Rs 3,516 Rs 2,000 Rs 24,67,578
7 Rs 24,67,578 Rs 24,126 Rs 20,563 Rs 3,562 Rs 2,000 Rs 24,62,015
8 Rs 24,62,015 Rs 24,126 Rs 20,517 Rs 3,609 Rs 2,000 Rs 24,56,407
9 Rs 24,56,407 Rs 24,126 Rs 20,470 Rs 3,655 Rs 2,000 Rs 24,50,751
10 Rs 24,50,751 Rs 24,126 Rs 20,423 Rs 3,703 Rs 2,000 Rs 24,45,049
11 Rs 24,45,049 Rs 24,126 Rs 20,375 Rs 3,750 Rs 2,000 Rs 24,39,298
12 Rs 24,39,298 Rs 24,126 Rs 20,327 Rs 3,798 Rs 2,000 Rs 24,33,500
13 Rs 24,33,500 Rs 24,126 Rs 20,279 Rs 3,846 Rs 2,000 Rs 24,27,654
14 Rs 24,27,654 Rs 24,126 Rs 20,230 Rs 3,895 Rs 2,000 Rs 24,21,759
15 Rs 24,21,759 Rs 24,126 Rs 20,181 Rs 3,944 Rs 2,000 Rs 24,15,815
           
190 Rs 87,187 Rs 24,126 Rs 727 Rs 23,399 Rs 2,000 Rs 61,788
191 Rs 61,788 Rs 24,126 Rs 515 Rs 23,611 Rs 2,000 Rs 36,177
192 Rs 36,177 Rs 24,126 Rs 301 Rs 23,824 Rs 2,000 Rs 10,353
193 Rs 10,353 Rs 24,126 Rs 86 Rs 24,039 Rs 0 Rs 0

Gaurav Mohta is chief marketing officer, HomeFirst Finance.

GAURAV MOHTA