Most prospective home buyers get excited and fail to think about how much expense they have to spend to purchase a house. Over-expecting your earnings will place you in a financial burden. No more than 30-40% of your take-home salary should be your EMI. If your city’s property markets are very expensive and you can’t afford the property you want to stay in, invest in anything that’s affordable even in the city’s periphery, if it’s from a good developer and fits your budget, but at the launch stage and you get some value appreciation when you exit. That’s turning into your seed money. Most banks let you exit one loan and take another one. Therefore, in a nearby area, you can rent out the lower-priced properties and use it as seed money to purchase where you want to live. Else, in terms of finance, you’ll always be behind the market.