What are the Key Stages in Construction of a House?

Author: Sachin Gupta | Find me on Twitter Follow @sach_gupta

There are 2 ways in which one can own a house. One, by buying it from the real estate developer in a group housing project, and the second option is by buying a plot of land and constructing it in your own way by adhering to building guidelines.

There are pros and cons of both the options.

When you buy the house directly from builder, you do not have to worry about land acquisition, approvals, construction, architects, contractors, etc. However, builder of the housing project may take upward of 4-5 years to hand over the housing unit to you. There is all the likelihood that you may not like the final product and therefore you might end up spending decent amount of money on renovation of your house. There could be other issues such as not finding the apartment on your desired floor, or an apartment with good view and access to sunlight, etc. As far as payment is concerned, you will be making it as per the construction linked plan and that is a big positive.

On the other hand, if you decide to build your own house, then, you take charge of all the things such as buying the plot, obtaining necessary approvals, dealing with architects & contractors, construction, and finishing. The whole process of building your own house may take about 1 year or more depending on the size of the house you wish to build. However, there will not be any compromise on quality. One important point you should take into consideration is that building your own house will be costly than buying it from the developer. Moreover, you should be prepared to shell out significant portion of the value of the property in 2-3 months time period. Also, you may not get benefits of group housing project such as gym, club, pool, playground, etc.

Having assessed the pros and cons of both the options and then deciding to develop your own house, you should stick to following construction stages in the development of your house.

Key stages involved in the construction process of your house from Green Realtech Projects Pvt. Ltd

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Home Loan Prepayment: The Whys and Hows

A few years ago, Misha took a large home loan, at a monthly EMI of almost Rs.37,000 and interest rate of 11.75%. She still has to pay close to Rs.26 lakhs of the principal amount with just a little over 10 years remaining. She is looking for options that can help her diminish the loan burden. As home loans are some of the biggest debts we take on during our financial lives, repaying them often becomes a substantial burden on middle-income earners with a fixed salary. However, there are four ways in which you can reduce your home-loan debt—or at least minimize its effects:

1. Transfer your home-loan to a low interest provider: If Misha transfers her home loan to a lender who levies 10.5% interest instead of 11.75%, her loan tenure comes down drastically. If she maintains the same monthly EMI, the reduced interest brings the tenure down to 113 months from 124. The longer you spend repaying your loan, the more interest you have to pay—therefore, Misha will save approx. Rs.4 lakhs in interest.

2. Increase your EMI and reduce the tenure: This can be availed only if your financial situation changes substantially. For example, you had been saving for your child’s education, but she has already left for college. Or your salary has been hiked by 30% or more. Suppose Misha pays Rs.42,000 a month instead of Rs.36,407 a month— her interest tenure comes down to 96 months from 124, as a result of which she pays Rs.476000 less in interest.

3. Make prepayments: Prepayments are payments made towards your loans in large chunks, and at irregular intervals. Here are the basic ways in which they differ from EMI payments:

• EMIs are compulsory and regular. You pay them every months, and you pay a fixed amount. While this amount can be changed, there is not much flexibility. Prepayment, on the other hand, depends entirely on the loan taker
• Prepayments are much larger than EMIs, for example the average home loan EMI can be anywhere between 10,000 and 50,000, while prepayments are numbered in lakhs.
• The most crucial difference between EMI and prepayment is that a large portion of your EMI goes towards payment of interest, at least towards the beginning of the loan tenure. Prepayments, however, go directly towards your principal, thereby bringing down not only the loan tenure, but also the outstanding loan amount.

If Misha makes prepayment of Rs.2 lakhs for 5 years, alongside her regular EMI of Rs.36,407, her total interest will drop by a staggering Rs.8.5 lakhs and her loan tenure will be almost halved— from 124 months to 73 months. Obviously, out of the three options for reducing the home-loan burden, making prepayments is the most profitable one. But while going down the prepayment route, there are a few things you must note:

1. You will have to pay interest when you are making a prepayment, i.e. the day you make the payment, your principal will decrease and from that point on you will be paying interest on the reduced principal. But suppose you make a prepayment on the 10 of the month— the interest on the original amount for those 10 days will have to be paid as well.
2. Some loan providers insist on validating your proof of income before accepting prepayment, as these are usually big ticket payments. Therefore it is advisable you carry bank statements for the account from which you are making the payment, dating back to at least three months.
3. The longer you take to repay a loan, the more your loan provider will earn. Therefore, accepting prepayment is often not in the best interest of the bank, so there might be measures like prepayment charges and limitations in payment mode. There may be a specific period after loan disbursement during which prepayment is not permitted. Also, the borrower may have to be present personally to make prepayment. Acquaint yourself with these rules and regulations before you take the leap.
4. Once your principal loan amount decreases, your CIBIL score (which reflects your credit worthiness) will improve. Follow up on your credit score within a few months of making the prepayment, to ensure that the reduction in outstanding balance is reflected.
5. Make sure to preserve the acknowledgement of payment. This document contains important details such as outstanding principal, home loan tenure, and change in EMI (if any).

The catch is, prepayment is possible only in case of a sudden financial windfall, such as yearly bonus or inheritance or gift. Then you would have the dilemma of whether to invest it and increase savings, or whether to prepay your loan and reduce your debt. Our advice is, if the rate of interest from investment is less that the interest you pay on your loan, it is better to make a prepayment. For example, investing in a provident fund would fetch Misha interest at 8.8 currently, while her loan interest rate is 11.75. Therefore, making a prepayment makes better financial sense.



This is a guest post by Team Paisabazaar

Looking to invest in real estate? Here are a few guidelines you must follow

Investing in the realty sector can be a good decision if done wisely. Most people channel all their savings and take out loans to purchase a property hoping that it will give them a good return on investment. Hence, this has to be done cautiously to make sure that the money invested bears fruit.

• Set a budget:

Budget is the most important thing you should take into consideration before buying a property. Set a budget and make sure your finances are in order. For many, Paying EMI is not an easy option. Paying EMI empties out their pocket by the end of the month. It would be wise to ensure that the EMI does not exceed 40% of your monthly income. Make sure that you don’t overestimate your financial capabilities.

• Research:

Once your finances are in order, the next important thing for you to do is research. You should work with the localities which match your requirement. Some of the criteria which one should consider while looking for a property are:

1. Locality
2. Accessibility and connectivity
3. Presence of social and physical infrastructure
4. Proposed infrastructure developments
5. Safety and security
6. Livability

It is always advisable not to invest in localities which lack basic amenities such as road, water supply and drainage system. Never get carried away with the promises of upcoming infrastructural developments and do not invest your money on those promises. Infrastructure takes time to be built and a few even fail to take off.

For guidance, you can visit IndiaProperty.com as this site provides expert analysis of localities through the micro market research reports and the locality pages.

• Check the builder’s credibility:

The real estate market is vast and the industry has both reliable and unreliable builders. Do not blindly invest your hard earned money after seeing a too good to be true offer from a small time builder. Make sure you check on the trustworthiness of the builder by visiting their previous projects. This will give you a clear idea about the credibility of the builder and then you can decide whether to invest your money or not.

• Verify legal documents:

For any property related transactions, title deeds play a crucial role. Check whether the seller has a strong title deed, if not, do not purchase the property. Here are some legal aspects to keep in mind while purchasing a property:

1. The title deed is an important document without which you will have legal troubles in the future.
2. Make sure you get the original title deed verified by an attorney before buying the property.
3. Before acquiring the property, confirm that all the clearances for the property are in place.
4. If you are planning to buy an under-construction property, do not forget to get the allotment letter and the development agreement from the builder.
5. The allotment letter has details about the project such as the price of the property, floor plan, delivery date and liability details if there is any delay in delivering the project, whereas the development agreement has the details of the terms and conditions under which the landowner has allowed the builder to use his property.
6. Make sure that the taxes related to the property are cleared before you buy the asset.
7. Never hesitate to get an expert’s help if you have doubts.

This is a guest post by Amy Anstey Seelan J