Assam’s home loan subsidy hands first-time buyers up to Rs 2.5 lakh: here’s who qualifies

Permanent residents of Assam who are buying their first house can now claim a state-funded subsidy of up to ₹2,50,000 on their home loan under ‘Aponar Apon Ghar’, a scheme run by the state’s Finance Department. The initiative is built around the goal of ‘Housing For All’ by 2022, and it works by lowering the effective interest burden on housing loans rather than handing out a lump-sum grant, so eligible borrowers end up paying less over the life of their loan.

To qualify, an applicant must be a permanent resident of Assam and must take their housing loan from a Scheduled Commercial Bank, a Regional Rural Bank, or the Assam Cooperative Apex Bank operating within the state. The loan itself has to exceed ₹5,00,000 and must have been sanctioned on or after 1 April 2019. The applicant’s total family income, counted from all sources, cannot exceed ₹20,00,000, and the loan account must not already be classified as a Non-Performing Asset (NPA). Crucially, the scheme is reserved for a family’s first home: anyone who already benefited under the earlier Apun Ghar scheme is excluded, and second-house purchases do not qualify.

The subsidy itself is tiered to the size of the loan. Borrowers with loans between ₹5,00,000 and ₹10,00,000 receive a ₹1,00,000 subsidy; those between ₹10,00,000 and ₹20,00,000 get ₹1,50,000; loans of ₹20,00,000 to ₹30,00,000 attract ₹2,00,000; and the top bracket, ₹30,00,000 to ₹40,00,000, draws the maximum ₹2,50,000. Loans above ₹40,00,000 do not receive any additional subsidy beyond the top slab.

Applications are accepted online only, through the official Assam Finance Department loan portal. Applicants first visit the website and go to the ‘Click here for Loan Subsidy’ section, then select ‘Aponar Apon Ghar (Home Loan Subsidy Scheme)’, which opens the Application for Release of Subsidy form. This requires personal details such as name, gender, date of birth, PAN number, email ID, mobile number and address, along with loan details including the IFSC code of the loan-issuing branch, bank and branch name, account number, sanctioned loan amount, sanction date and property address. Applicants must then upload supporting documents, tick the declaration box, and submit the form. Anyone wanting to track a submitted application can return to the same portal, use the ‘Application Tracking’ section at the bottom right of the page, and enter their mobile number along with their loan account or application number.

Documents applicants should keep ready include proof of Assam residence, proof of identity, an income certificate, bank account details, a passport-size photograph, recent salary slips, a six-month statement of the salary account, proof of at least five years in service, and a statement of personal assets and liabilities in the bank’s prescribed format, along with documents establishing ownership of the land where the house stands. The scheme guidelines and the full document checklist are published on the Assam government’s finance and district portals for applicants who want to verify requirements before applying.

‘Aponar Apon Ghar’ is administered by the Finance Department, Government of Assam, and is open only to the state’s permanent residents. Source: myscheme.gov.in

Wikimedia Commons/by Joli Rumi