When Mr. Wilson, your colleague at office, shifted to the posh London locality, you were taken for a shock. How could Mr. Wilson manage to buy a home with his paltry income when you still had to make do in your two-room apartment? You are not necessarily jealous but surprised at the turn of events. Had you been aware of the uses of home loan, the event would not have been as jolting as it is now.

It is true that many of the people are not aware of home loans. In addition, those who are aware of home loans have drawn several misconceptions regarding their use. This has deprived a majority of the people of home loans and thus deprived them of opportunities to boost their standard of living by shifting to a better house in a better locality.

A Home loans is primarily a mortgage. The most important purpose to which a home loan is put to is buying or constructing a home, which corresponds to the function of a mortgage, i.e. buying or constructing home. There are other uses too that a home loan can be put to. For these uses, the home loan becomes similar to a home equity loan where the equity in home backs the repayment of the loan. The traditional uses of the home loan in debt settlement, car purchase or in undertaking home improvement involves using the equity in home for providing finance to the borrowers.

Borrowers can pledge up to four family residences for a home loan. As mentioned above, the home/ homes so pledged serve the purpose of backing the loan repayments. In the normal circumstances, when home loan repayments are made regularly, the borrower can claim his home as soon as the full repayments are made. It needs to be stated at this stage that pledging the home to collateral does not mean a cessation of the rights to stay in the home. You continue to exercise the right to stay in the house as you continue with your duties to pay property tax and keep the home in a good condition.

Some of us will picture this as a situation wherein you are getting everything without having to lose anything. Though true to some extent, it is not absolutely correct. Lenders charge interest at a certain rate of interest and this is completely justifiable. Had the lender deposited or invested the amount lent, he would have got a certain amount in terms of interest. Many lenders do not charge fees for their services and a home loan would thus be the cheapest option available to borrowers.

Add to this the convenience in repayment through several monthly instalments. The monthly instalments enable the borrowers to repay the home loan through his monthly revenue. The tenants can especially advantage from the repayment method. The amount that they had been paying for the rented apartment can be channellised to the loan repayments.

For borrowers, who fear that the hike in interest rate will substantially increase their interest cost, loan providers have come up with several interest options on home loans. These interest options, though not covering the home loan borrowers for the entire term of repayment, give them relief for a particular time period. Fixed rate method of charging interest, for instance keep the interest rate stable for a maximum period of five years. Similar is the time period for capped rate method where interest is not allowed to rise beyond a certain level but allowed to fall freely.

Refinance presents another important technique of saving your hard-earned pounds from being wasted on an interest hike. As soon as you find that the interest rates are rising, you switch over to a loan provider who is offering a better rate of interest. However, you must ensure that the original loan provider does not expressly prohibit prepayment and refinance through a penalty clause.

When being used as a mortgage, the lender would not invest the entire amount needed to affect the purchase or construction of home. The borrower will have to put in a certain percentage of the purchase price. While this helps minimise the risk on the lender, he would reward this with a better-term home loan deal.

Home loan comes as an important finance method for those who are aspiring to go up in the property ladder. The ability to use the home loan amount for uses other than buying or constructing house makes home loans extra advantageous.