Instalments

Paying the price in parts on the authority's schedule, with interest as the brochure prints it. The schedule and the rate are the authority's own and they vary widely, so two schemes at the same price are not the same purchase. MDA takes 25 per cent within 90 days of the instalment letter and the balance 75 per cent in six equal half-yearly instalments over three years at 9.70 per cent a year, with late payment at 11.70 per cent compounded half-yearly. GDA's first come first served scheme takes 10 per cent at booking and another 10 per cent within 60 days of the allotment letter, then the balance 80 per cent either in one payment or in instalments at the State Bank MCLR plus 1 per cent, over seven years for a 2 BHK, HIG or multistorey flat and twenty years for an EWS house.

Paying in one go is often cheaper than it looks: GDA discounts the balance by 6 per cent if it is paid within 45 days, 5 per cent within 60 and 4 per cent within 90.

Not every scheme offers instalments at all. DDA's Janta Awaas Yojana Phase II is cash down, the whole price within 60 days, and opens a hire-purchase route of up to 15 years only to an allottee with a benchmark disability.