Home Loan Interest Rates in India: A Repo Rate Trend Report

Executive summary

Since October 2019, new floating-rate home loans from Indian banks have been priced off an external benchmark — for most banks, the RBI repo rate plus a mark-up the bank sets. BankCreds Research read every RBI policy decision from January 2016 to 7 October 2026 (66 decisions, 23 changes) and every benchmark rate published by State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank and Union Bank of India, then matched each repo change to each bank’s revision. Over the May 2022–February 2023 tightening (250 bps) the banks’ benchmarks rose by between 235 bps and 265 bps, and 46 of the 62 revisions we could date took effect within 7 days. Mark-ups over the repo rate ranged from 2.65% to 2.85%, and on 8 October 2026 the 7 October 2026 change had reached 3 of the 5 banks’ benchmarks.

How a repo rate change reaches a home loan

Since 1 October 2019, RBI has required banks to link every new floating-rate retail loan, home loans included, to an external benchmark. Most banks chose the repo rate. Each bank publishes that benchmark as the repo rate plus a mark-up it sets, under its own name: EBLR (external benchmark lending rate) at State Bank of India and Union Bank of India, RLLR (repo-linked lending rate) at Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank, and BRLLR at Bank of Baroda. Your loan rate is that benchmark plus a spread fixed by your credit profile, and RBI’s rules require the rate on such a loan to reset at least once every three months. So a repo change reaches you in two steps: the bank revises its benchmark, then your loan resets on the date in your loan agreement.

Rate cycles since January 2016

The repo rate began the period at 6.75%. The deepest easing ran from February 2019 to May 2020: 7 cuts taking it from 6.50% to 4.00%, including a 75 bps cut in March 2020. It then held at 4.00% until May 2022, when the sharpest tightening began — 250 bps in 6 steps to 6.50%. After 24 months unchanged, RBI cut by 125 bps between February 2025 and December 2025, to 5.25%, then raised the rate by 25 bps on 7 October 2026. Banks’ benchmarks followed each cycle closely: the gap between each line in the chart and the repo rate is the bank’s mark-up.

Same repo rate, different mark-ups

Because every benchmark is built on the same repo rate, the difference between banks lies in the mark-up. On 8 October 2026 it ranged from 2.65% at State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda to 2.85% at Punjab National Bank. Mark-ups change without any RBI decision — Punjab National Bank’s has moved from 2.65% to 2.85% since October 2019 — and such changes show up in the cycle figures: Punjab National Bank’s benchmark fell 115 bps in the February 2025–December 2025 easing while the repo rate fell 125 bps. A mark-up change moves every loan linked to that benchmark, so it is worth checking alongside the repo rate.

The latest repo change: where it has reached

RBI raised the repo rate by 25 bps, to 5.50%, on 7 October 2026. By 8 October 2026, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank and Union Bank of India had published revised benchmarks; State Bank of India and Canara Bank had not. Rate cards lag benchmarks: the home-loan cards of Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank and Union Bank of India still showed rates worked out from their earlier benchmarks, and several private banks’ pages still showed the previous repo rate. Existing borrowers are affected when their loan resets, whatever a card says; a new borrower should ask which benchmark value the quoted rate uses.

What a rate change does to your EMI

On a ₹50,00,000 home loan over 20 years at 7.15%, the EMI is ₹39,216. Each 25 bps rise adds about ₹758 a month, or ₹1,81,937 over the full term; a rise as large as the May 2022–February 2023 tightening would take the EMI to ₹47,097, ₹7,881 more each month. Banks often extend the tenure instead of raising the EMI. RBI’s rules on resetting floating rates require banks to tell you when the rate changes and to offer a choice between a higher EMI, a longer tenure, or a switch to a fixed rate.

Private banks: current rates only

We found no published history of a lending benchmark at ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank and IDFC FIRST Bank. Most of these banks link home loans to the repo rate itself plus a spread, so their benchmark history is RBI’s; but their current rates are all that can be compared. On 8 October 2026 they ranged from 7.60% (Kotak Mahindra Bank) to 13.20% (HDFC Bank). Yes Bank could not be read.

Methodology

Repo rate. We read every RBI policy statement and Monetary Policy Committee resolution from January 2016 to 7 October 2026 — 66 decisions, holds included — and recorded each change with its date and the release’s own wording (dataset version 1.0). Dates are decision dates. Bank benchmarks. For each bank we recorded every benchmark rate it publishes, with its effective date, exactly as printed (dataset version 1.0). Where a bank publishes no history, values come from Internet Archive captures of the bank’s own rate page; values printed on dated rate cards are kept as point-in-time readings, not change dates. Periods with no official record are left blank. Pass-through. For each repo change since October 2019 we took the first benchmark change in the same direction before the next repo decision; the lag is the number of days from RBI’s decision to the bank’s effective date. Cycle changes run from the day before a cycle’s first repo change to the day before the next cycle and include any mark-up change. EMI. Standard reducing-balance formula, monthly rests.

Full standards: BankCreds research methodology.