ICICI home loans have freebies and benefits like easy interest rates, simplified documentation, and doorstep service and free Personal Accident Insurance. In terms of interest rate and other facilities, the choice of home loans it offers has loads of benefits. These loans sponsor the purchase, construction of a new home, home extension or renovation, purchase of land for residential use and loans by mortgaging an existing residential property.

In ICICI SmartFix Home Loans, for the first 3 years the borrower pays at fixed interest rate and the fourth year onwards, the loan gets switched to the prevailing floating interest rate.

ICICI Bank offers Home Improvement Loans for refurbishment of one's home. One can avail of loan up to Rs. 50 lakhs. The loan covers up to 70% of the cost of improvement and the repayment period is 15 years.

 Eligibility criteria for Resident Indians:

• Minimum age is 21 years.
• Applicant must be salaried or Self-employed.
• For availing land loans, the property should be for residential use and purchased from a development authority or a registered co-operative society. The land in question must be for construction of a house, with clearly marked boundaries, leaving no room for legal wrangle on this count
• For purchase/construction or extension of a non-residential property, the applicants has to be professionally qualified, self employed individuals with 3-years' work experience.

Loan amount is granted weighing up a host of factors like assets and liabilities, stability of service and income, age and number of dependents. But the eligibility for bigger loans is also enhanced by factors like the loan applicant’s spouse income and additional securities like bonds, fixed deposits and LIC policies that enhance creditworthiness.

 Eligibility criteria for NRIs:

• Minimum age for loan application is 21 years.
• For Repayment tenor between 11-15 years, the loan applicant should be a Post Graduate or professionally qualified.

Loan Amount:
ICICI Bank offers home loans for purchase or construction of house and the loan amount to the extent of 85% of the cost of the property including the stamp duty and registration. The loan starts from 2 lakhs.

The maximum loan that can be granted to an NRI for home loans is INR 1 crore while the minimum is INR 5 lakhs. Resident Indians are eligible for certain tax benefits on principal and interest components of a housing loan under the Income Tax Act, 1961.

ICICI MaxMoney Home Loans have high loan eligibility with a lower initial installment. In this scheme, one can get up to 30% higher amount against one's current income. Also the installment amount gets stepped up over the years.

Repayment:
Maximum loan tenure is of 20 years.  The loan must terminate before or when the borrower turns 65 years of age or before retirement, whichever is earlier.

Repayment tenure for Salaried NRI applicants is up to 15 years and for Self-employed is up to 10 yrs for purchase or construction of a new home. Maximum loan eligibility is 85% of the total cost of the property.

Rate of Interest:

The fixed rate for home loans is now at 13 per cent per annum and the floating at 11 per cent. You can change your current loan from a floating rate loan to a fixed rate loan. A switch fee of 1.75% (+ applicable service tax) on your outstanding loan amount at the time of such switch is charged when changing from fixed to floating as well as from floating to fixed rates of interest. The rate of Interest for Resident and Non-resident Indians comes as fixed or floating rates.

Loan Processing Charges:
0.5% of loan amount is charged towards Administrative fee or Rs.2,000 whichever is higher. Fees are non–refundable.

For more information visit: http://www.icicibank.com/