Get Up to ₹25 Lakh for Home Loan at Nominal Interest: Govt Scheme for Central Staff

New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu): If you are a central government employee and are dreaming of your own house or are troubled by the installments of an expensive home loan, then there is a relief news for you. The central government runs a special 'House Building Advance' (HBA) scheme for its employees, under which an advance amount of up to Rs 25 lakh is given at very low interest to build or buy a house or repay the old loan.

What is House Building Advance (HBA) Scheme?

House Building Advance (HBA) is a financial assistance given by the Central Government to its employees. Its main objective is to ensure that government employees can build their house without any financial burden. The most special thing about this scheme is that the amount received under it can also be used to repay the existing home loan taken from any recognized bank or housing finance company. That is, if you are troubled by the expensive EMI of a private bank, then you can close that loan by taking an advance from HBA and avail the benefit of low interest.

How much money will be given and for what works?

Under this scheme, the government gives an advance to an employee of 34 months of his basic salary or a maximum of Rs 25 lakh (whichever is less). This money is not only available for building or buying a new house, but also for repairing or expanding the old house (such as building a new floor or room), the limit of which is up to Rs 10 lakh.

Another unique feature of this scheme is that if both the husband and wife are central government employees, then both of them can avail this facility separately. In this case, a single family can get a total advance of up to Rs 50 lakh, which will allow them to easily buy a bigger and better house.

Who can avail the benefit and how much interest will be charged?

This scheme is currently available to all permanent employees of the Central Government. While deciding the amount of advance, the basic salary of the employee as well as some special allowances, such as non-practicing allowance given to doctors, are also included. The biggest feature of this scheme is its sabit (fixed) interest rate, which is currently only 7.44% per annum. This rate is much lower than the interest rates of most home loans running in the market, which helps employees save lakhs of rupees in the form of interest in the long term.