The current market value of my flat in Pune is close to Rs 65 lacs. I purchased it for 17 lacs in the year 2005. Until recently, I used to feel really proud about my investment decision. It was something that I boasted about to all and sundry. Rightfully so, as my investment had multiplied… Continue Reading
One of the vital assets a country needs for economic prosperity is an educated population. Economic prosperity cannot be achieved by plentiful natural resources alone. (Of course, there are exceptions like the gulf region which has plentiful deposits of hydrocarbon, and most of the population is not highly educated. They manage with expatriate talent). While… Continue Reading
When you purchase an under-construction property, your bank may link the disbursal of home loan to the construction stages of the property. In such cases, you will either be asked to pay pre-EMI OR given an option to choose between pre-EMI and full EMI payments. What is Pre-EMI? As you are probably aware, Equated Monthly… Continue Reading
I recently met my long-time friend at his home for a tea. This childhood friend of mine is a geek and eventually the conversation drifted to his new purchase, a Mac Mini. He was very enthusiastic about his new purchase and was thrilled about getting it under the zero percent EMI scheme. The conversation went… Continue Reading
Taking serious note of borrower un-friendly home loan schemes introduced by banks in association with developers/builders, RBI has advised banks to refrain from making upfront disbursal of home loans to the builders without linking the disbursal to various construction stages of housing project. These subvention schemes, popularly known as 80:20 or 75:25 schemes, had gathered… Continue Reading
The new year has begun on a positive note for those planning to take on new loan and also for those borrowers who are already paying EMI against their home loan or a car loan. The RBI just announced a repo rate cut by quarter per cent (0.25 per cent) and this is likely to… Continue Reading
At this time of steep hike in petrol price and heavy inflation, there is one good news to cheer about – the Reserve Bank of India has notified all the banks to stop charging penalty on foreclosure and pre-payment of home loan with floating interest rate with immediate effect. So far banks used to charge… Continue Reading
The Reserve Bank of India has cut the repo rate by a sharp 50 basis point. Repo rate is the rate at which the RBI lends money to banks. It means the borrowing from RBI becomes cheaper for commercial banks. The reduction in repo rate has come for the first time in last 3 years.… Continue Reading
This Diwali, Reserve Bank of India increased the Repo rate (rate at which RBI lends credit to banks) to 8.5% and Reverse Repo rate (rate at which RBI borrows from banks) to 7.5%, both increased by 25 basis points; and thus in last one and a half year it has increased cumulatively 525 basis points.… Continue Reading
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised its repo rate – rate at which it lends to banks – and reverse repo rate – the rate it pays to banks for deposits – by a quarter of a percentage point to 8.25% and 7.25% respectively. With today’s rate hike, RBI has raised interest rates 12 times in… Continue Reading