What you can claim under the old regime
| Section | What it covers | Annual limit |
|---|---|---|
| 24(b) | Interest paid, self-occupied property | ₹2,00,000 |
| 24(b) | Interest paid, let-out property | No cap on interest, but loss set-off capped at ₹2,00,000 |
| 80C | Principal repaid | ₹1,50,000, shared with all other 80C items |
| 80C | Stamp duty and registration | Within the same ₹1,50,000, year of payment only |
The 80C limit is shared. If your provident fund contributions, insurance premiums and children's tuition already fill ₹1,50,000, your home loan principal adds nothing further.
Four details that catch people out
Interest paid during construction
You cannot claim interest while the property is being built. Once construction is complete, the accumulated pre-construction interest is claimed in five equal annual instalments, starting the year of completion — and it still counts within the ₹2,00,000 cap.
A joint loan doubles the limits
If you and your spouse are both co-owners and co-borrowers, each of you can claim up to ₹2,00,000 of interest and ₹1,50,000 of principal, in proportion to your shares. Both conditions matter: being a co-borrower on the loan is not enough if you are not also a co-owner of the property.
Section 80EEA has closed for new loans
The additional ₹1,50,000 interest deduction under 80EEA applied to loans sanctioned between April 2019 and March 2022. It is not available on a loan sanctioned today. If you already have one, you continue to claim it for that loan's term. Plenty of websites still list it as though it were current.
Selling within five years reverses your 80C
If you sell the property within five years of the end of the financial year in which you took possession, every 80C deduction you claimed on principal is added back to your income in the year of sale. It is not a penalty exactly — but it is a bill people do not see coming.
So which regime should you be on?
There is no general answer, and anyone who gives you one without seeing your numbers is guessing. Broadly: a large home loan interest bill combined with a full 80C and other old-regime deductions can make the old regime worth staying on. A smaller loan, or a mostly-repaid one, usually does not. Work it out both ways for your own income before you decide, and take an accountant's view — this is the one part of a home loan that is genuinely a tax question rather than a lending one.
See what your interest actually comes to each year — the first years are almost entirely interest.
Open the EMI calculator