How Much Home Can You Afford in India? A Salary-to-Home-Price Guide (2026)
The price a bank will let you buy is not the price you can comfortably carry, and confusing the two is how people end up house-poor. Your affordable home price in India is set by three things: how much of your income can go to an EMI, how large a loan that EMI supports, and how much cash you have for the down payment and charges. This guide works through all three, with a rupee example you can follow, and points you to the Affordability Calculator to run your own.
Step one: how much EMI your income supports (FOIR)
Banks size your loan against your Fixed Obligation to Income Ratio, or FOIR: the share of your net monthly income that all your EMIs together are allowed to consume. In 2026 the usual caps run:
- Net salary ₹25,000 to ₹50,000: FOIR around 40% to 45%.
- Net salary ₹50,000 to ₹1,00,000: FOIR around 50% to 55%.
- Net salary above ₹1,00,000: FOIR can stretch to 60% or more.
Higher earners get a higher cap because their basic living costs take a smaller share of income. Crucially, any existing EMIs, a car loan, a personal loan, or a credit-card balance, come out of that allowance first. A ₹10,000 existing EMI on a ₹50,000 salary can cut your home-loan eligibility by nearly ₹10 lakh.
Step two: the loan that EMI buys
Take a net salary of ₹1,00,000 a month with no existing EMIs, and a 45% FOIR. That allows a home-loan EMI of ₹45,000. At a 2026 interest rate of 8.5% over 20 years, ₹1 lakh of loan costs about ₹868 a month in EMI, so ₹45,000 supports a loan of roughly ₹51.8 lakh. A quick sense-check that banks also use is about 60 times net monthly salary, which gives ₹60 lakh here; the precise EMI-based figure is the one that governs. You can see the exact number for your rate and tenure on the EMI Calculator, and how an EMI is built explains why the interest share of it shifts over the years. The rate itself is a choice as well as a market number: see floating versus fixed rates before you assume today's 8.5% holds for twenty years. Once the loan is running, a windfall can go into the principal or into investments, and which one wins turns on the return you expect.
Step three: the down payment and the RBI loan-to-value cap
A loan never covers the whole price. The Reserve Bank of India caps the loan-to-value ratio, so the rest is your down payment. If FOIR, LTV, and the rest of the vocabulary are new, our glossary of rent and buy terms defines them in plain language.
| Property value | Maximum loan (LTV) | Minimum down payment |
|---|---|---|
| Up to ₹30 lakh | 90% | 10% |
| ₹30 lakh to ₹75 lakh | 80% | 20% |
| Above ₹75 lakh | 75% | 25% |
Source: RBI loan-to-value norms, as applied by lenders in 2026 (see NoBroker's summary). Stamp duty, registration, and GST are paid separately and are not covered by the loan.
Put the pieces together. A ₹51.8 lakh loan sits in the ₹30 lakh to ₹75 lakh band, where the loan can be 80% of the price. So the affordable home price is 51.8 ÷ 0.8 = about ₹65 lakh, with a down payment of roughly ₹13 lakh. On top of that, budget stamp duty and registration of about 6% to 7% of the price, another ₹4 lakh or so, plus any brokerage. So a ₹1 lakh net salary supports a ₹65 lakh home, provided you have about ₹17 lakh in cash for the down payment and charges. If that cash is the binding constraint rather than your income, our guide to how much to save for a down payment, and how to get there works through the strategies.
Affordable is not the same as maximum
Everything above is the ceiling a lender will allow. Living comfortably usually means staying below it. Two rules of thumb keep the EMI sustainable:
- Keep the home-loan EMI under about 35% to 40% of net income even if the bank permits more, so a job change or a rate rise does not put you under strain.
- Keep an emergency fund of six months of expenses after paying the down payment, not before. The down payment should not empty your safety net.
Budget for the running costs too, not just the EMI. Society maintenance, property tax, insurance, and repairs add up, and the costs of ownership beyond the EMI are what turn an affordable purchase into a stretched one.
And affordability is only half of the buy decision. A home you can afford may still be a home you are better off renting, if the price is high relative to rent and you would earn more by investing the down payment. Once you know your number here, test it against renting on the Rent vs Buy Calculator, and read the full rent-or-buy framework for India for the factors the calculator cannot price.
Home affordability questions, answered
How much home loan can I get on a ₹1 lakh salary?
With no existing EMIs and a good credit score, roughly ₹50 lakh to ₹55 lakh at 2026 rates over a 20-year tenure, based on a home-loan EMI of about 45% to 50% of net income. Existing loans reduce this, and a longer tenure or a co-applicant can raise it.
What is the FOIR limit for a home loan in India?
Most lenders allow all your EMIs combined to reach about 40% to 55% of net monthly income, with the cap rising for higher earners. The proposed home-loan EMI plus any existing EMIs must fit inside that limit, which is what sizes your eligible loan.
How much down payment do I need to buy a home in India?
At least 10% for a home up to ₹30 lakh, 20% between ₹30 lakh and ₹75 lakh, and 25% above ₹75 lakh, following RBI loan-to-value caps. You also pay stamp duty, registration, and GST separately, which the loan does not cover, so budget another 6% to 8% of the price in cash. See the minimum down payment, bank by bank for what lenders ask for in practice.
How do I calculate how much house I can afford?
Work out the EMI your income allows within the FOIR cap, convert that EMI into a loan amount at current rates, then divide by the loan-to-value ratio for your price band to get the home price, and add the down payment and charges you can fund in cash. The Affordability Calculator does all of this for you.