 Well before we get to the pros and cons of a 30 or 20 year loan term, I think it's important to state that a lot can happen between 20 and 30 years. So ideally you want to limit your repayment period thereby limiting your exposure to factors that could impact on your ability to repay over a long period of time. For example, most homes in South Africa are resold after 78 years. So the pros and cons of a 20 year term versus a 30 year term are quite simply, on a 20 year term you'd be expected to pay a much higher monthly repayment than a 30 year term and the pro to that is that your interest charge would be a lot less given a shorter period of time. On a 30 year term you'd be expected to pay a lot less than a monthly basis but over time you'd probably end up paying a lot more interest. So regardless of the 20 to 30 year bond period ideally what you want to do is to repay your home loan as quickly as possible to avoid unnecessary interest charges.