An application for home loans can be made any time after you have decided to acquire/construct a property, even if the property has not been selected or the construction has not commenced. An application form along with the necessary documents has to be submitted to the respective finance company after which they would review the application and decide on its status.

The processing of a home loan application, if the documents are in order takes around fifteen days and it takes another week for the company to check out the property papers and make the disbursement.

If you are an individual - your spouse, your parents, or even your children can be your co-applicants and their incomes can be clubbed with your income to enhance the amount of loan you are eligible for. It makes sense therefore, that the co-owner of a property has to be a co-applicant, but a co-applicant need not be the co-owner of the property. If you are a partnership or private limited company, any one of the directors or partners can be your co-applicant. 

 An EMI refers to the fixed sum of money that you will be paying to the housing finance company every month against a loan amount borrowed for a fixed period of time. An EMI has two components, the principal component and the interest component. The amount of the EMI depends on the quantum of loan, interest rate applicable and the term of the loan. The loan carrying the lower EMI for the same tenure is the cheaper option.

 Yes, NRIs can avail of a housing loan to buy a property in India. However, the terms and conditions for a NRI loan offered by the banks and HFCs are different than housing finance granted to Residents of India.

Yes. Loans can be pre-closed for a nominal charge before the termination. The immovable property was acquired by the seller in accordance with the provisions of the Exchange Control Rules/Regulations/Law in force at the time of acquisition, or the provisions of the Regulations framed under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999; The amount to be repatriated does not exceed (a) the amount paid for acquisition of the immovable property in foreign exchange received through normal banking channels or out of funds held in foreign currency non-resident account or (b) the foreign currency equivalent, as on the date of payment, of the amount paid where such payment was made from the funds held in non-resident external account for acquisition of the property; and In case of residential property, the repatriation of sale proceeds is restricted to not more than two such properties. 

No. NRI's do not require any permission to acquire any immovable property in India other than agricultural / plantation property or a farm house.