Home loan balance transfer charges in India, itemised

The processing fee is the figure every home loan transfer page quotes, and on a large loan it is rarely the biggest cost. A transfer discharges one mortgage and registers another, so the state duty, the legal opinion and the technical valuation all fall due again. This page itemises the whole stack from lender-published schedules, all retrieved 2026-09-03, and marks aggregator figures as secondary. The home loan balance transfer calculator takes each of these as a separate input.

Processing fee, bank by bank

Published fees as at 2026-09-03. Every figure is a ceiling or a starting point, gated on the borrower’s profile, and waivers under limited-period offers are common.

Three structural details matter more than the headline percentage.

A floor makes small loans expensive. SBI’s ₹2,000 minimum on a ₹4 lakh transfer is 0.5%, not 0.35%. HDFC’s “₹3,000 or 0.50%, whichever is higher” works the same way, so anything under ₹6 lakh pays the flat ₹3,000.

A cap makes large loans cheap. SBI’s ₹10,000 maximum means the percentage stops rising above about ₹28.6 lakh. On ₹60 lakh the effective rate is 0.17%. Bank of Baroda’s flat ₹8,500 has the same property from the first rupee.

Non-refundability is published. HDFC states that all fees are non-refundable with a minimum retention of 50% of the fee or ₹3,000 plus taxes. Kotak’s ₹5,000 login fee is payable upfront and non-refundable. A transfer that is abandoned after the login stage is not free.

MOD and stamp duty: the cost the lender calculators omit

A balance transfer creates a fresh mortgage. In most states that means a fresh Memorandum of Deposit of title deed, or an equivalent instrument, and fresh state stamp duty on it. HDFC Bank’s own charges page is explicit that stamp duty, MOD, MOE and CERSAI charges are borne and paid solely by the customer at actuals. Kotak’s schedule says stamp duty, registration and legal charges are per state and on the borrower.

The rate is state law, not bank policy, and it varies. Figures commonly cited sit in a band of roughly 0.1% to 0.5% of the loan, with about 0.3% quoted for Maharashtra-style states and a cap applying in several states. In Maharashtra a separate notice of intimation registration is cited by a secondary source at 0.5% of the loan or ₹15,000, whichever is less.

The rupee consequence is large. On a ₹40 lakh transfer, 0.3% is ₹12,000, roughly comparable to the entire processing fee at SBI’s cap. On a ₹12 lakh transfer it is ₹3,600 against a saving that may be measured in hundreds a month. This is the single line most competing calculators leave out entirely, and it is the reason a state-specific figure is worth confirming with the new lender before the file is logged in.

Legal, valuation and CERSAI

Legal or title-search opinion. Charged at actuals and paid directly to the empanelled advocate in many cases. Commonly ₹1,200 to ₹5,000; a secondary source cites about ₹1,200 including GST for HDFC Bank.

Technical or property valuation. The new lender revalues the property because it is taking fresh security. Kotak publishes a cap of up to ₹5,000 plus taxes, payable at disbursement and non-refundable. ICICI Bank’s FAQ confirms a fresh property re-evaluation and a fresh loan agreement.

CERSAI registration. ₹50 plus GST for loans up to ₹5 lakh and ₹100 plus GST above that, per a secondary source breakdown of SBI’s charges. Trivial in rupees, real in the itemisation.

Franking, document handling and NOC charges. The outgoing lender may charge for document retrieval and the no-objection certificate, and franking or document-handling charges appear in several schedules. These are the charges most likely to arrive unquoted.

Property insurance. Sometimes bundled or pushed at disbursement. It is not a transfer cost as such, but it lands in the same cash outflow.

Foreclosure at the old lender: usually nil

On a floating-rate home loan to an individual, exit from the old lender costs nothing. HDFC Bank’s charges page states nil prepayment charges for individual floating-rate borrowers irrespective of the source of funds. Kotak’s schedule states foreclosure is nil for floating-rate individual borrowers and up to 4% for fixed-rate. Bank of Baroda’s takeover page states no pre-payment penalty.

The statutory backing is the RBI (Pre-payment Charges on Loans) Directions, 2025, effective for loans sanctioned or renewed on or after 1 January 2026, alongside RBI circulars of 2012 and 2014 that already barred foreclosure penalties on floating-rate home loans to individuals. A fixed-rate home loan is the exception and can still be charged. The scope of that rule, and the way it is commonly misread, is set out on the RBI prepayment rules page.

Where GST at 18% applies

GST at 18% applies to the fees. It does not apply to the interest, because interest on a loan is exempt.

That makes the tax arithmetic simple on a home loan and different from a credit card EMI plan, where the published terms at SBI Card and Axis Bank apply 18% to the interest component as well. On a home loan transfer:

• Processing fee ₹10,000 (0.35% capped by the lender) becomes ₹11,800.
• A ₹5,000 valuation fee becomes ₹5,900.
• MOD and stamp duty are a state levy, not a service fee, and carry state duty rather than GST.
• Interest across the whole tenure carries no GST at all.

The full stack on a ₹40 lakh transfer

Using SBI-style terms and a 0.3% state duty, illustrative and computed rather than quoted from a lender:

Against a rate cut from 9.15% to 7.90% with 216 months remaining, that ₹28,918 is recovered in month 7. Against a 0.50 point cut with 60 months remaining it is not recovered until month 45 of 60. The costs are the same shape in both cases; what differs is the interest left to save. That comparison is worked through on is a home loan transfer worth it, and a loan against property carries the same stack with a larger duty component, covered by the loan against property calculator.

Two costs that are not fees

The internal conversion you did not price. HDFC publishes a conversion fee of up to 0.50% capped at ₹50,000 plus taxes, whichever is lower, and Kotak publishes 0.5% capped at ₹10,000 for a floating to benchmark switch. Neither triggers a fresh MOD or a revaluation.

The top-up blended into the quote. A top-up alongside the transfer changes the principal, the EMI and the interest total, so a comparison that includes it is no longer a comparison of the transfer. Separating the two keeps the cost stack readable.