RBI rate cut: Time to rethink your home loan strategy?
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. NEW DELHI : The Reserve Bank of India’s latest 25‑basis-point (bps) repo‑rate cut—the fourth in 2025, bringing the total reduction to 125bps—has brought cheer to home‑loan borrowers. The rate cuts will particularly benefit borrowers who took home loans in 2020-2022 at rates of 6-6.5%, but saw the rates rise to 9-9.5% within a year following the central bank’s cumulative repo-rate hike of 225bps between May 2022 and March 2023.
A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. Repo-linked lending dominates the retail loan market, so even a small cut ripples quickly through borrowing costs, lowering interest outgo for the borrower over the loan tenure. Punjab National Bank (PNB) has lowered its repo-linked lending rate (RLLR) by 25bps, following the RBI’s repo-rate cut.
Other major banks are yet to announce their RLLR cuts. When the RBI trims the repo rate, transmission to home loan rates depends primarily on the borrower’s loan structure. Existing borrowers whose loans are pegged to external benchmark rates, such as the repo rate, will see the revised rate applied to their next scheduled reset date, said Jagadeesh Mohan, co-founder of EMI Saver.
With most banks operating on monthly resets, the 25-bps cut announced on 5 December should show up in EMIs (equated monthly installments) or loan statements by the end of the month. “No paperwork or request is required. Customers can verify the change through their loan portal or bank notifications," Mohan added.
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