How your plan models buying a home

The official rules

The rules on home loans and stamp duty

How much you can borrow

MAS sets the limits on a housing loan from a bank or other financial institution. HDB sets its own for an HDB loan.

• Mortgage servicing ratio (MSR). Your monthly repayments on all property loans are capped at 30% of your gross monthly income. The MSR applies only to loans for an HDB flat, or for an executive condo (EC) whose minimum occupation period hasn’t ended.
• Total debt servicing ratio (TDSR). Your repayments on all your debts, the home loan included, must be 55% of your gross monthly income or less.
• Loan-to-value (LTV). On a first housing loan from a bank, you can borrow up to 75% of the price, with at least 5% paid in cash. The limit drops to 55%, with at least 10% in cash, if the loan runs past age 65, or for longer than 25 years for an HDB flat (30 years for other property). A bank loan is capped at 30 years for an HDB flat and 35 years for other property.
• HDB loan. HDB lends up to 75% of the price of a new flat (for a resale flat, 75% of the price or valuation, whichever is lower), with repayments capped by the 30% MSR. The loan runs for up to 25 years, or until 65 minus the applicants’ average age, whichever is shorter. For a new flat, the 25% downpayment is 10% when you sign the Agreement for Lease and 15% at key collection. Under the Staggered Downpayment Scheme, eligible buyers pay less at signing and the rest at key collection.
• Interest rate floor. Banks work out the TDSR and MSR with an interest rate of at least 4% a year, for purchases where the option to purchase was granted on or after 30 September 2022. From the same date, HDB works out how much it will lend with an interest rate of at least 3% a year. The HDB loan rate itself stayed at 2.6%.

Sources: MAS, MSR and TDSR rules, MAS, loan tenure and LTV limits MAS, MND and HDB, 29 September 2022, HDB loans guide and HDB BTO buying guide, checked 12 Oct 2026

Buyer’s Stamp Duty

Buyer’s Stamp Duty (BSD) is a tax on every property purchase. For homes bought from 15 February 2023, each rate applies only to the slice of the price in its band. The duty is rounded down to the whole dollar, with a minimum of $1.

Source: IRAS, Buyer's Stamp Duty, checked 12 Oct 2026

Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty

Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) is an extra duty on top of BSD. It depends on citizenship and how many homes you own. When buyers have different citizenships, the highest rate among them applies to the whole price.

Source: IRAS, Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty, checked 12 Oct 2026

How your plan models it

How your plan models it

One property, end to end

Own it already, planning to buy, or waiting for keys: the Housing part of your plan covers all three, for one property. You pick one of five scenarios, such as owning a home, planning to buy, or waiting for a flat. Your plan then works out the affordability, how you pay, when payments start, what it costs beyond the price, and how CPF and any grant fit in.

Affordability caps

Your plan caps the monthly payment against your income, and for bank loans your other debts too, so a loan can never be bigger than you can comfortably cover. It never sizes a loan below a fixed interest rate floor, even if your rate is lower.

The 4% bank floor is the MAS stress-test rate in force since 30 September 2022. The 3% HDB floor applies to HDB loan applications from the same date.

Your plan always uses whichever rate is higher, yours or the floor, so a low headline rate can’t inflate your borrowing power. The floor only sizes the loan. An HDB loan is still repaid at 2.6%.

For an HDB loan or a 75% bank loan, the tenure is the shorter of the cap above and the years left until the older applicant turns 65. For an HDB loan, HDB uses the applicants’ average age instead, so with two applicants your plan’s tenure can be shorter than HDB’s. A bank loan for an HDB flat (BTO or resale) is capped by both MSR and TDSR, using whichever gives the smaller loan.

Older buyers and the 55% tier

MAS lowers a bank loan’s limit to 55% of the price when the loan runs past 65, or for longer than 30 years (25 for an HDB flat). Your plan sizes every bank loan at both tiers and uses the one that lends more:

• 75% tier. Up to 75% of the price, with at least 5% in cash. The tenure is up to 30 years for private property or an EC (25 years for an HDB flat), and the loan ends by 65.
• 55% tier. Up to 55% of the price, with at least 10% in cash. The tenure is up to 35 years for private property or an EC (30 years for an HDB flat), and the loan ends by 75.

If both tiers lend the same, your plan uses 75%. Before about 60, the 75% loan nearly always lends more. The 55% loan comes in when your income (TDSR, plus MSR for an HDB flat) limits a loan that must end by 65, and when you buy at 65 to 74, where no 75% loan is possible. From 75, your plan assumes no bank loan. With the 55% loan, the other 20% of the price is paid upfront, and at least 10% of the price is paid in cash, not CPF.

New launch or EC. Instalments start during construction and run for at least a year after the last stage. If you buy at about 61 to 64, that runs past 65, so your plan uses the 55% loan over up to 35 years. Because the loan must run for at least about 52 months, a new launch or EC you haven’t signed for gets no bank loan from about 71. The extra 20% is paid across the early stages. A purchase you’ve already signed for keeps its 75% loan, unless you’re 65 or older.

HDB loan. An HDB loan ends by 65, so from 65 your plan assumes no HDB loan. The flat is paid in full from CPF and cash, or, before 75, you can choose a bank loan at the 55% tier.

Sources: MAS, loan tenure and LTV limits and HDB loans guide, checked 12 Oct 2026

Downpayment and loans

HDB loan (2.6%). For a BTO, your plan always charges the downpayment through CPF in two instalments, 5% at application and 10% at key collection, 15% in total, whatever you answer to “Staggered downpayment scheme?”. At key collection, any OA balance above $20,000 per payer is also paid towards the flat. The HDB loan covers the rest of the price, up to what the 30% MSR allows, and anything it can’t cover is paid in cash. For an HDB resale flat, the full 25% is charged at signing.

Bank loan. The minimum downpayment is 20% from CPF plus 5% in cash, 25% in total. The loan covers the remaining 75%. With the 55% loan, the downpayment is 45%, with at least 10% in cash.

Waiting periods

A BTO purchase waits 4 years from application to key collection before payments, and the flat, arrive.

For an executive condo or new-launch condo you haven’t signed for yet, keys (TOP) arrive 3 years after signing by default. ECs usually take about 3 years and new-launch condos 3 to 4. The construction stages below stretch or shrink to fit, so you can change it in Housing’s assumptions. The date in your sale and purchase agreement is the best figure for a specific project.

Stamp duty and fees

Your plan uses the BSD bands above for every property type. For purchases dated before 15 February 2023, it uses the earlier schedule: 1%, 2% and 3% up to $1,000,000, then 4% above. When your purchase date isn’t fixed yet, your plan takes 1 January of the year you buy.

Your plan models one property at a time, so ABSD always uses the “1st property” row. Two applicants are treated as a married couple. If at least one of them is a Singaporean buying their first property, ABSD is remitted and the rate is 0%. So a Singaporean and PR couple pay 0%, two PRs pay 5% and a PR with a foreigner pays 60%. The duty is rounded down to the whole dollar.

BTO miscellaneous costs, paid through CPF

HDB resale miscellaneous costs, cash or CPF

New-launch condos, ECs and other private property use simpler sets of costs. A new-launch condo or EC is just BSD plus ABSD, through CPF. Other private resale adds a flat $500 cash request-for-value fee and a flat $3,200 CPF legal fee on top.

Grants

You enter the grant amount you expect. Your plan credits it to your CPF OA, not cash, once it’s “assessed”. Grants aren’t offered for condos or landed property, so the field is hidden and set to zero.

For a BTO, you choose when that assessment happens. This also decides when your income, liabilities and CPF are read to size your loan.

• Deferred (the default). Income, liabilities, CPF and the grant are all assessed at key collection, years later, on your finances once the flat is ready. Income usually grows over those years, so this tends to size a larger loan than assessing today would.
• Not deferred. Everything is assessed at application instead, on your finances today. This is a more cautious read that can size a smaller loan.

Non-BTO purchases don’t get this choice. Either way, the downpayment follows its own fixed schedule: first instalment at application, second at key collection. Deferring the assessment changes when your finances are measured, not when the money moves.

Progressive payments

For a new-launch condo or EC still being built, you pay in stages as construction reaches each milestone. This is the standard BCA progressive payment scheme.

The 8 staged rows add up to 75% of the price. Add the booking fee (5%), the option to purchase (15%) and the Foundation stage's 5% lump sum, and the total reaches 100%.

The durations are your plan’s base schedule, which reaches TOP 31 months after signing. For a purchase not yet signed, the gap before Foundation and the six construction stages are scaled so TOP lands at your signing-to-keys setting (3 years by default, so 36 months). TOP to Certificate of Completion stays 12 months. A purchase you have already signed for keeps its own schedule and isn’t rescaled.

The Advanced expander

You can change the loan figures on this page for your own plan: servicing ratios, downpayment splits, loan interest and floors, tenures, the age a loan must end by, the OA amount kept aside and the BTO wait. They sit in Housing’s “Customise the assumptions” expander, closed until you open it. Leave it closed, and your plan’s own defaults apply. Stamp duties, fees and the progressive payment schedule are fixed. See Commitments for where this expander sits.

On your plan dashboard, the housing panel shows the downpayment, miscellaneous costs, the loan amount and tenure, and the progressive schedule, drawn straight from these calculations.