Banks tell you the most they will lend. That is only one of three limits. On the same ₹25 lakh salary, the lender's limit allowed a ₹1.54 crore flat, comfort allowed ₹1.08 crore, and ₹25 lakh of savings allowed only about ₹54 lakh.
The loan a bank will approve and the home you can comfortably afford are different numbers. We worked through three households on the same ₹40 LPA salary: their comfortable budgets range from about ₹1.19 crore to ₹1.81 crore, and each needs ₹49–69 lakh in cash up front.
A Bengaluru couple asked Reddit whether to take a ₹1.8 crore loan for a ₹2.7 crore J P Nagar flat. On their reported finances the EMI is comfortable. But at ₹15,000 per sq ft, the price sits above three-quarters of asking prices in that pincode. Here's the full working.
FOIR is the share of your income already going to EMIs. Lenders use it to decide how much they'll lend, but there's no single national limit, and banks don't all count income the same way. Here's how it works, with the maths.
Under-construction homes now carry higher average asking prices than ready ones in Delhi, Gurugram and Mumbai. But the real comparison is total cost over the same period. We modelled both, including a 12- and 24-month delay.