You can use your house as collateral to take a loan from a bank. The latter will exercise due diligence as far as the property is concerned, appraise its value, and offer you up to 70% of its value as loan. Since this is a secured loan (you are offering collateral), you can get a higher amount than the one you will get for an unsecured loan like a personal loan. Of course, you will also have to pay the administrative and processing fee, which is usually 0.5-1.5% of the value of the loan. Typically, the tenure for such a loan is 1-15 years, but some banks may be willing to extend it to 15 years if the loan is large. The interest rate, which can be floating or fixed, varies from 12-16%, which makes them cheaper than personal loans.

"Taking a loan against your property is certainly cheaper than a personal loan, where the interest rate is usually between 14% and 22%. The only loan that is less expensive than the one against a property is a home loan.

It's also a better option since the tenure for these loans is longer than those for personal loans, which offer a maximum term of five years. Of course, you can prepay the loan, with the banks following the same guidelines as those for regular home loans.