Tips to cope with rising home loan EMIs

In an online chat with readers on August 3, home loan expert Harsh Roongta provided answers to how home loan borrowers should cope with their rising equated monthly installments.
Here's the unedited transcript:
sand asked, I have taken Loan of Rs.25 lac last year and with interest rate increased to 11% I have pre paid 50% without penalty , my loan tenure reduced to 3 years from 10 years ,pl note I was sitting on cash balance , is this right decision or should I have placed the cash deposit in FD
Harsh Roongta answers,  at 2011-08-03 16:09:22No bank fixed deposit could have given you a post tax interest rate that would be better than the post tax cost on the home loan. So you absolutely did the right thing if the alternative investment you were comfortable with was only a fixed deposit. The answer could have been different if you had been willing to take more risk with your investment and invest for the long term in equity related intruments. The other thing that people like you must keep in mind is that you should first pay off the costlier debt (if any) such as credit card,personal loan, car loan etc. before paying off the Home loan. Also please make sure that you have some amount of money available to you as contingency fund (around 3-4 moths of expenses).  bab asked, my salary is 50000rs/month and i want loan of amount 2000000 so how much extra amount i have to pay within 15 years
Harsh Roongta answers, You will be eligible for a 15 year loan of Rs. 20 lakhs based on your net take home salary of Rs. 50,000 per month assuming you have no other loans and have a good credit repayment history on any past loans and credit cards. The EMI for 15 year loan of rs. 20 lakhs for 15 years assuming interest rate of 10.75% will be around 22,400 per month. The total payment for 180 months will be Rs. 40 lakhs 35 thousand assuming interest rates stay at 10.75%. Actual interest may go up or down based on interest rate movements in the market. piyush asked, I have taken a home loan last year and now my father has sold a property,so can i take money from him and close my home loan.will they charge me prepayment penalty.
Harsh Roongta answers, It will depend on your contract. If your home loan agreement provides that pre-payment made from own sources (and you can ask your father to gift you the money rather than take it as a loan from him - you can repay by gifting it back to him when you have the money) can be made without pre-payment charges than there will be no pre-payment charges else i am afraid there will be pre-payment charges as per your specific home loan agreement terms. sdfsdf asked, Hello Sir, I am planning for a home loan .. My current CTC is 8 lakhs per annum and my dream home costs 32 L.. wats the right amt to take loan and wats the duration I should go for.. I dont have any debts till now..
Harsh Roongta answers, assuming you are less than 40 years old you can easily get the Rs. 32 lakhs loan sanctioned based on your income assuming interest rate of 10.75%. Off course the loan amount cannot exceed 80% of the property value. You should go in for a 20 year tenure but choose a lender that allows partial pre-payments without any charge (Axis,ICICI, SBI, etc. ) so that you get the flexibility of lower EMIs and at the same time you can pre-pay the loan without any chrage if you have a surplus left over.
Source http://www.rediff.com/