Renovation is the one loan purpose where the number people tell us at application and the number they actually spend are furthest apart. Someone comes in with a ₹2,50,000 quote for a kitchen and two bathrooms, borrows exactly ₹2,50,000, and four weeks later the plumber has found something behind the wall, the tile they wanted is out of stock in that size, and they’re ₹40,000 short with the house half torn up.

I’ve watched this happen enough times to have an opinion about it. The problem is almost never the interest rate. It’s that the loan was sized against a quote instead of against reality, and the EMI was budgeted against a good month instead of an average one. Both are fixable before you apply, and neither takes more than an evening with a calculator.

Size the loan against the quote plus the things not in the quote

Renovation costs in India currently run roughly ₹1,500 to ₹4,000 per square foot depending on scope, city and finish level. That range is wide because it’s doing a lot of work — a repaint-and-fix-the-plumbing job and a full fit-out with new modular units are not the same species of project, even though both get called “renovation” at the dinner table.

What matters more than the per-square-foot figure is what contractors’ quotes routinely leave out. In my experience the recurring gaps are: electrical rework that only becomes visible once walls open up, waterproofing in bathrooms and balconies, debris removal and society charges, and the cost of living somewhere else (or eating out) while the kitchen is unusable. None of these are anyone being dishonest. They’re genuinely hard to quote before demolition starts.

So: take the quote and add 15%. On a ₹2,50,000 quote that’s ₹2,87,500 — call it ₹3,00,000. Borrowing the contingency upfront costs you a few hundred rupees a month. Discovering you need it halfway through, when the loan is already disbursed and the bathroom is a hole, costs you far more, because your options at that point are a second loan, a credit card, or a stalled site.

One timing note worth ₹20,000-odd on a project this size: tiles, paint and fixtures are typically 10-15% cheaper during the monsoon months (July to September) than they are in the December-to-March renovation rush. If your project is flexible on start date, buying materials now and executing shortly after is a real saving — and it’s a saving you keep, unlike a rate negotiation.

The actual EMI math on ₹3,00,000

Here’s what a ₹3,00,000 personal loan looks like at 16% APR on a reducing-balance basis, across the tenures we typically write:

  • 12 months — EMI ₹27,219, total interest ₹26,631
  • 24 months — EMI ₹14,689, total interest ₹52,534
  • 36 months — EMI ₹10,547, total interest ₹79,696

Look at what stretching from 12 to 36 months does. Your monthly outgo drops by ₹16,672 — a genuinely different burden on a household budget. But you pay ₹53,065 more in interest to get there. Neither of those numbers is “right.” A family that can absorb ₹27,219 a month without touching savings should take the 12-month tenure and be done in a year. A family for whom ₹27,219 means skipping every other financial goal for twelve months should take 36 and sleep better.

The mistake I’d steer you away from is picking the longest tenure by default because the EMI looks small. Match the tenure to how long the renovation actually benefits you. Waterproofing and rewiring last fifteen years; it’s reasonable to pay for those over three. A repaint you’ll redo in four years is a bad candidate for a 36-month liability.

Considering this kind of loan? Apply for a Securis loan — typical disbursement is 1-2 working days.

Rate matters less than most people assume at this ticket size, by the way. On ₹3,00,000 over 36 months, the difference between 14% and 18% is ₹593 a month. Worth having, not worth delaying a monsoon-priced material purchase by six weeks to chase.

What actually decides how much you get approved for

This is the part borrowers are most often surprised by, so let me be direct about the mechanics. We don’t underwrite the renovation. We don’t send anyone to look at your bathroom, and the quote you upload doesn’t set your limit. What sets your limit is your own income and banking behaviour — specifically your FOIR, the share of your monthly income already committed to debt repayments.

A worked example. Take a net salary of ₹75,000 credited to your bank account each month. At a 50% FOIR ceiling, total EMIs across all your loans can run to about ₹37,500. If you’re already paying ₹12,000 on a vehicle loan and roughly ₹3,000 in card minimums, your remaining headroom is about ₹22,500 a month. A ₹3,00,000 loan at 36 months (₹10,547) sits comfortably inside that. The same loan at 12 months (₹27,219) does not — it exceeds your available room, and the application would come back either restructured to a longer tenure or approved for a smaller amount.

That’s the whole logic. Salary credited to the bank rather than taken in cash, a clean bounce history, and existing obligations that leave real headroom — those three things decide your number. The purpose printed on your documents says “home renovation,” and it’s disclosed properly, but it isn’t what the credit decision turns on.

When a personal loan isn’t the right tool for this

An unsecured personal loan is priced for what it is: no collateral, fast, and capped. We lend up to ₹5,00,000, typically over one to three years. Inside that band, for a kitchen, bathrooms, rewiring, waterproofing or a room’s worth of work, it’s a sensible fit — the money is yours to spend as the project demands, and nobody is releasing funds against site milestones.

Above that band, it stops being the right instrument. A full fit-out of a 1,000 sq ft flat can run ₹12,00,000 to ₹18,00,000 even at the basic end, and paying unsecured rates on that much money over that long is an expensive way to do it. That’s a job for a secured home-improvement loan or a top-up against your existing home loan — those are backed by the property, priced far lower, and structured for longer tenures. Your bank’s home-loan desk is the right conversation there, not us. Product categories exist for reasons, and stretching a small-ticket unsecured product across a large secured job is how people end up overpaying.

Skip this entirely if the work is genuinely optional and your emergency buffer is thin. A renovation you want is not a renovation you need, and there’s no shame in doing the bathroom this year and the kitchen next year out of savings. Equally, if the roof is leaking into the bedroom, that’s not a discretionary project and waiting to save up has its own cost — get it fixed.

The summary I’d give a friend: add 15% to the quote, pick the tenure that matches how long the work lasts rather than the one with the smallest number, check your own FOIR headroom before you apply so the approved amount isn’t a surprise, and if the project is genuinely large, use a secured product instead.

If you want a second opinion on your specific situation, WhatsApp us — we’ll be honest about whether Securis fits.