Fixed Interest Rates v/s Floating Interest Rates

Buying a new home can be a tedious process. You have to first select your dream home, put your finances in order, and then approach a bank or NBFC for a housing loan. If you’re lucky and your CIBIL score is good enough your loan can get sanctioned within days, but before that happens you need to agree upon an interest rate for your loan. Home loan interest rates are of two types, fixed rates and floating rates. Since home loan is usually a long term commitment, choosing between fixed and floating interest rates is usually a tough decision for most applicants.

Let us simplify this process for you, by explaining what both these interest rates actually mean and what they entail.

Banks and non banking financial companies offer both fixed and floating interest rates. Since interest rates are the most important aspect of any loan, getting it right is the key to repay without any financial stress or default over time.

Fixed rate of interest on a loan would mean that the equated monthly instalments or EMIs would remain constant over the tenure of the loan. On the other hand for floating interest rates, the EMIs would fluctuate as per the market dynamics as interest rate increases or decreases.

Fixed interest rates are always set higher than floating interest rates, by 1 to 2.5% at the time of the sanction of the loan. This is can be both and advantage and a disadvantage. Since these rates remain constant you don’t have to worry if there is a hike in the housing loan interest rates due to the passing of a bill or implementation of a new rule, but at the same time if the rates see a dip, there is no benefit to you.

Floating interest rates are usually lower than fixed interest rates although parameters like inflation and current account deficit are used in calculation of base rate by RBI which can mean an uncertainty and different EMI for each repayment or installment for the home loan. This can be difficult to keep track of as each installment may be different.

Both these rates have their own advantages and disadvantages.  Before choosing one, a borrower needs to do proper research as to which one best suits him. 

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