A home loan or a home mortgage loan is any loan which has a property attached to it as collateral. A builder, developer or a home buyer can take financial assistance in the form of a loan for purchase of a given piece of land of a completely built structure. In layman’s language mortgage is tantamount to a mortgage loan. A home mortgage loan has characteristic like most other loans in that the method of repayment, interest rate, maturity period and size may vary to some degree on a case by case basis.

In contemporary times, most home purchases are done with the help of a home loan with few exceptions as very few households can muster enough money to purchase a property outright. In geographies where the demand for property is high, there is an equally strong domestic for home loans.

The word Mortgage is lifted from a French term which means "dead pledge". This implies that if the obligation is left unfulfilled then the property would be taken into foreclosure.

There are many different types of loan which are disbursed worldwide. But there are several factors which broadly defines the feature of any mortgage. These characteristics and features are subjected to legal and local regulation of the land. Let’s look at some of the broad characteristics of a loan.

Prepayment: a few types of mortgages completely restrict or limit prepayment of a portion or the entire loan. In certain cases even a penalty is imposed on the lender in lieu of prepayment. EMI: it is the amount which has to be paid on a regular basis as decided between the lender and the borrower. The amount can be altered by the lender or by the borrower as per their mutual understanding.

Term: home loans typically have a maximum term. This is the number of years after which a loan has to be repaid. Some of the loan has no amortization or some of the loans require repayment or even still negative amortization.

Interest: Interests are of 2 types, fixed and variable. These may or may not change at pre-defined periods. Depending upon the financial health of the country the interest rates of a home loan could be high or low.

In a fixed rate home loan, the periodic payment as well as interest rate are fixed fir the entire life of the mortgage. In an adjustable rate home loan, the interest rate fluctuates after a given period of time in accordance with some market index.