Home Loan Comparison Calculator India 2026 — Two Offers

One benchmark, many spreads: why every quote moves together but never matches

Before October 2019, banks priced floating-rate loans off their own internal MCLR, which let each lender delay passing on a repo cut. RBI closed that gap: effective 1 October 2019, all new floating-rate retail loans, including housing loans, had to be linked to an external benchmark — a rate the bank does not control, most commonly the repo rate. Banks remained free to choose their benchmark and, separately, to set and periodically reprice their own spread on top of it — changeable, per the same mandate, only on a genuine change in the borrower's credit risk profile, not at the bank's discretion.

That is why every lender's floating rate moves in the same direction when RBI changes the repo rate, but no two lenders' quotes converge to one number: the benchmark component is identical for every bank that has adopted repo-linked pricing, while the spread is where a lender prices your credit score, loan-to-value ratio, employment type and its own cost of funds. A quote that looks 25–50 basis points higher than another lender's, at an identical repo rate, is that spread difference — not a different repo rate being applied to you.

Why the loan-to-value ratio you request changes the rate itself

RBI's Master Circular on Housing Finance ties the loan-to-value ceiling a bank may offer to the loan size, and separately sets the capital a bank must hold against that loan depending on the LTV band: for loans up to ₹30 lakh, a risk weight of 35% applies at an LTV of 80% or below, rising to 50% for LTV above 80% and up to the 90% ceiling. A higher risk weight means the bank sets aside more capital against the same loan, which is a real cost — one reason a borrower requesting the maximum LTV at the edge of a slab can see a slightly different spread quoted than a borrower putting down more upfront on an identical property, even at the same bank.

Two consequences for comparison shopping: first, two quotes for the same nominal loan amount are not comparable unless the LTV behind them is also the same — a bank offering you 90% LTV at the ceiling is taking on a differently-weighted risk than one offering 75% on the same property value. Second, stamp duty and registration are excluded from the financed property cost under this circular (except for homes up to ₹10 lakh), so the LTV percentage each lender quotes applies to the same property price base across banks — that part, at least, is standardised by the same RBI rule everywhere you shop.

What to check on an actual lender quote before trusting this table

This comparison table shows a starting rate; the offer letter a lender actually sends you needs three checks against what's sourced above before you treat it as equivalent to the row you compared it to.

• ·Confirm the benchmark, not just the number. The external-benchmark mandate covers loans sanctioned from October 2019 onward — an older MCLR-linked loan you're comparing against a fresh quote isn't repriced the same way when the repo rate moves, so a like-for-like comparison assumes both are repo-linked.
• ·Confirm the LTV is computed on the same property-price base. Under the Master Circular, stamp duty and registration are excluded from that base (above ₹10 lakh) — a lender quoting a higher effective LTV by including duty in the property cost is not comparable to one that isn't.
• ·Confirm the offer letter states no pre-payment or foreclosure charge if it's a floating-rate individual loan sanctioned on or after 1 January 2026 — that's what the 2025 Directions require; a clause charging you to exit should not appear on a qualifying loan.

A comparison mistake today isn't a 20-year mistake: there's no RBI-mandated exit fee

Comparing lenders carries less weight than it used to, because switching later has gotten cheaper by regulation. Under RBI's Pre-payment Charges Directions, 2025, regulated entities — commercial banks (excluding payments banks), co-operative banks, NBFCs and All India Financial Institutions — may not levy pre-payment or foreclosure charges on floating-rate loans sanctioned to individuals for non-business purposes, with or without co-obligants, regardless of the funding source or any lock-in period. The Directions apply to loans and advances sanctioned or renewed on or after 1 January 2026. In practical terms: if you pick a lender from this comparison today, on a floating individual loan sanctioned from that date, no RBI-covered lender can charge you to close it out and move your balance elsewhere later.

That does not make the first choice free of consequence — you still pay the new lender's own processing fee and other switching costs, and a loan sanctioned before 1 January 2026 or on fixed terms may fall outside this ban entirely. Work the actual break-even math on this site's home loan balance transfer calculator before assuming a lower headline rate elsewhere is automatically worth the switch.

The lender comparison ends at the interest rate; the after-tax cost doesn't

Two identical loan offers at the same rate are not identical in what they cost you after tax, because that depends on which income tax regime you file under — a choice this rate comparison alone can't make for you. Under the old regime, interest on a self-occupied property's loan is deductible up to ₹2,00,000 a year under Section 24(b), and principal repayment counts toward the ₹1,50,000 combined Section 80C limit. Under the new/default regime, Section 115BAC disallows both of those deductions for a self-occupied property.

Run your own numbers, including the current-year deduction caps, on this site's home loan tax benefit calculator before deciding a slightly higher headline rate from one lender beats a slightly lower one from another — the tax regime you file under can swing the real comparison by more than the rate difference itself.