How do you use the home buying timeline planner?
- Enter today’s price of the kind of home you want, what you have saved for it and what you can add each month.
- Add your guess for yearly price growth, your take-home pay and the share of it you are willing to spend on the EMI.
- Under “Adjust rates, loan and savings return” you can change the loan rate and tenure, a return on your savings, new flat or resale, and the stamp duty and registration rates.
How is the buy date worked out?
The planner moves forward a month at a time. Each month the price grows by your guess and the loan is set at the lowest of three limits: what your EMI budget can repay, the RBI loan-to-value limit for that price, and the price itself. The cash you need is the price minus the loan, plus stamp duty, cess, surcharge and registration in Bengaluru. The first month your savings cover that cash is your buy date.
Price growth is a guess, not a forecast, and your pay may rise too, which this planner does not assume. Keep an emergency fund apart from these savings and leave room for interiors and moving.
How the timeline is worked out
Price today × (1 + growth)^(m ÷ 12)Lowest of: loan your EMI budget repays, RBI limit (90% up to ₹ 30 L, 80% up to ₹ 75 L, 75% above), pricePrice − loan + stamp duty, cess, surcharge and registrationFirst month where savings ≥ cash neededWorked example: ₹ 80 lakh resale flat, 5% growth
With ₹ 10 lakh saved and ₹ 50,000 added a month, you get there in 2 years 6 months. By then the flat costs ₹ 90,37,811, the RBI limit allows a loan of ₹ 72,30,248, and you need ₹ 24,94,440 in cash, including ₹ 6,86,877 of stamp duty and registration. The EMI at 8.5% over 20 years is ₹ 62,746.
Worked example: when prices stay flat
If prices did not rise, you would need ₹ 22,08,000 and could buy in 2 years 1 month. Keep 5% growth but cut take-home pay to ₹ 1 lakh, and the EMI budget caps the loan at ₹ 46,09,234. You would need ₹ 39,98,766 in cash today, and since every price rise must then come from savings, they never catch up.
Buy date at different monthly savings
| Saved a month | Time to buy | Price then |
|---|---|---|
| ₹ 25,000 | Not in 50 years | — |
| ₹ 50,000 | 2 years 6 months | ₹ 90,37,811 |
| ₹ 75,000 | 1 year 7 months | ₹ 86,42,506 |
| ₹ 1,00,000 | 1 year 2 months | ₹ 84,68,585 |
What should you keep in mind?
- Banks set their own EMI-to-income limits, so check what your lender will sanction before you commit.
- Have your lawyer check the title and approvals of any home before you pay an advance.
- For how tax deductions on the loan affect your budget, ask your Chartered Accountant.
Frequently asked questions
Sources
- Karnataka Stamp Act, Schedule Article 20 (sale deed duty and first-sale slabs); cess under section 3B; surcharge for the Greater Bengaluru Area.
- Karnataka IGR notification on registration fees (2% of value). Rates verified 18 Oct 2026 on official Karnataka government sites.
- RBI Master Circular on Housing Finance: loan-to-value limits of 90%, 80% and 75%.
- Price growth, savings return, pay and the EMI share are your inputs; the defaults are examples.
Indicative only, not financial advice. Confirm stamp duty and registration on Kaveri Online before registering, have your lawyer check the title before paying an advance, and ask your Chartered Accountant about tax on the loan.
Buying a home in Bengaluru? Talk to an acre&key advisor.