



Owning a home is a rush like no other. Nothing comes close to how you feel when you have recently bought a residential property in a place of your choice. This stands true for NRI’s too, who would like to buy a home in India. However, their reasons for buying a property could be different from you. Usually is it just an investment decision with an aim to get the best returns on it.



India’s property market has always been a rewarding option for non-resident Indians (NRIs) and persons of Indian origin (PIOs) to invest in. Motivated by swift development, optimistic demographics, and relatively steady prices, the number of expats investing their cash in the nation’s real estate has increased in the last few years. What’s more, there are quite a few developers who develop properties especially for the luxury segment, which is another draw as NRI’s would like to maintain the same standard of living they have in countries they reside in now.





NRIs are occasionally challenged by the lack of transparency and trustworthiness in India in the absence of a well-defined controller right now. Moreover, they may not always be used to the numerous guidelines and procedures required to avail NRI home loans in India, their eligibility criteria, and applicability, etc. However, that may be set to change. A few initiatives and policies like the RERA Bill and the Benami Act introduced by the current Narendra Modi-led government are investor friendly and have elevated the sanguinity among property buyers.





If you are an NRI seeking to apply for a home loan in India, here are a few things you must keep in mind while applying for the loan.







Documents Required For Home Loan For NRI In India

The papers essential while applying for a housing loan comprises of your passport and visa arrangements as part of the Know Your Customer (KYC) regulation; the particulars of your permanent home address in India; and commission or employment letter, work experience credentials, work authorization and agreement of employment. Also, income certificates and declarations of Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) and Non-Resident External (NRE) accounts held by you are needed to support the income proofs submitted. You would also need to submit a foreign land address proof, confirmed by your employer i.e. an email confirmation, along with the income tax return declarations from the foreign land. To warrant finance worthiness, you will have to submit a criterion certificate. You would also need to submit a General Power of Authority (GPA) in the bank’s format once it is duly notarized.



In short, you need

Copies of Passport and visa

Current and Permanent address details

Details of employment

Experience certificate

Work permit

Income Proof both Indian and overseas

NRI credit criterion certificate

General Power of attorney





Sub-Applicant

A sub-applicant and a General Power of Attorney is required if you would like to apply for an NRI home loan in India. The GPA beneficiary must either be a sub-applicant or an underwriter to the finance, with some exclusions. The guarantor to the NRI home loan is a must when a local resident is not available as a co-applicant.







Home Loan Eligibility For NRI In India

The level of your salary and educational qualifications are very important when it comes to deciding on your eligibility to get a loan. Graduation is the minimum degree qualification you must hold to apply for an NRI housing loan. The criteria for eligibility is to understand if you are on delegation or have been working permanently in overseas. Similarly, the income required for loan eligibility can comprise of both repatriated income and that received in India. Banks in India will consider the net income i.e. revenue left after paying duties overseas when determining your loan eligibility.



Lowest Salary Standards

These standards change from bank to bank. For example, in numerous banks earning 24,000 dollars a year is taken as the least salary level for NRIs based in the US.







Period Of loan

The tenure of an NRI home loan in India is shorter than that of a regular home loan. The reason is that the repaying capacity of NRIs is considered to be stronger than that of an Indian resident. Mostly, banks give a home loan to NRIs for a period of 15 years.







Proportions

The Loan-to-value ratio (LTV) is the hypothecation sum to the assessed cost of the property. Banks permit 80-85% of LTV to an NRI or PIO, subject to your regular salary. Additionally, another proportion that is significant when you are applying for housing finance is the fixed-obligation-to-income ratio (FOIR). This is the percentage of fixed regular installments owed to the monthly income. Banks push the FOIR up to 60 percent especially for NRIs, depending on their revenue.







Home Loan Interest Rate For NRI In India

The interest rates for NRI housing finance is the same as the domestic housing loan rate.



Repayment & Disbursement



The repayment of the finance must be done in Indian currency and can be repaid through NRE or NRO accounts with remittance from overseas only. The likelihood of bad loans is not high in the case of NRIs, as the asset is in the native land and can the bank can take hold of it anytime.

What several NRIs don’t know is that the GPA holder must be present in person, in the bank grounds, at the time of payout of the loan. The underwriter’s or GPA holder’s sign is needed on disbursal papers, as the primary applicant is not actually present in India.







Assessing Process

The loan assessment for NRIs is completed over their official email address. Every aspect pertinent to the evaluation of the loan eligibility is deliberated and established over email. The employment details of the applicant overseas are verified with his or her employer. You must notify your human resource department in advance to evade any interruption in the loan evaluation. The division may receive a call to confirm worker code, the purpose of transfer, job title, etc.







Tax Benefits

There are no Tax benefits for NRI customers availing housing finance unless they file income tax returns and become entitled to get tax discounts available for such loans in India.

