Prepayment usually reduces the home loan EMI. Whenever you have surplus funds, you can repay a lump sum amount towards your outstanding principal over and above the regular EMI. This lowers your principal amount and eventually the EMI and interest cost, provided the loan tenure remains the same.
As per the RBI’s directive, Lenders cannot levy a penalty on prepayment for floating-rate home loans. However, for fixed-rate home loans, lenders might charge a prepayment fee of up to 4% of the outstanding loan amount.
It is advisable to prepay your loan amount in the early years of your loan tenure. This is because the interest component is higher in the early years.