01 · The questionWhy the bank said no
The rule that decides your budget before you have seen a single unit.
Your budget is set in a spreadsheet before you view anything. Here is the spreadsheet.
Buyers usually discover TDSR the way you discover a low doorway. You have picked the unit, agreed the price, and the loan comes back smaller than expected. Nothing about your income changed. The assessment simply was not the one you made at home.
The rules are public and the arithmetic is fixed. You can run it yourself in about ninety seconds, and you should — before you shortlist, not after.
TDSR is not a credit decision. It is a formula, and you can run it before the bank does.
02 · The claimWhat the rules actually are
Three caps, and which one applies to you.
TDSR (Total Debt Servicing Ratio) caps all your monthly debt repayments — mortgage, car, personal loans, the minimum on your credit cards — at 55% of gross monthly income.
MSR (Mortgage Servicing Ratio) caps housing repayments alone at 30% of gross income. It applies to HDB flats and to Executive Condominiums bought directly from the developer. It does not apply to private property or to resale ECs past their restriction period.
Buying private, only TDSR applies. Buying an HDB flat, both apply and the tighter one wins — in practice, MSR.
Private buyers face one cap at 55%%. HDB buyers face two, and the 30%% one binds first.
03 · MethodHow we calculated it
The assumptions, stated so you can disagree with them.
- Stress rate 4.0% per annum — the medium-term floor banks use for assessment, not the rate you will pay.
- Tenure 30 years, the practical maximum for most private purchases.
- TDSR 55% of gross monthly income, with no other debt commitments.
- Purchase price derived at 75% loan-to-value — the standard first-mortgage ceiling.
- Market context from URA caveats, 2021-07 to 2026-07, private non-landed resale, Executive Condominiums excluded.
Change any assumption and the answer moves. A shorter tenure cuts the loan. Existing debt cuts it further, dollar for dollar against the 55% allowance. An age-capped tenure — the loan must generally end by 65 for the best terms — can cut it hardest of all.
04 · Core evidenceWhat your income buys
Gross monthly income against the purchase price it supports at 75% loan.
At S$6,000 a month, the loan comes to roughly S$691,000 and the supportable purchase price to S$922,000. At S$10,000, those become S$1,152,000 and S$1,536,000.
Set that against the market: the median private non-landed resale over the last twelve months cleared at S$1,700,000 at a median of 1,773 psf, across 11,188 transactions. Reaching the median takes about S$12,000 a month.
On S$10,000 a month with no other debt, your ceiling is about S$1,536,000. Everything else is negotiation.
05 · The mechanismThe stress rate does the work
One assumption inside the formula moves your budget more than your salary does.
Banks assess at a floor rate rather than the rate you are quoted. At 4.0% over 30 years, every S$1,000 of monthly repayment capacity supports roughly S$209,000 of loan. Drop the assessment rate to 3% and the same S$1,000 supports about S$237,000 — a 13% larger loan on identical income.
This is why budgets move when policy moves, even though nobody’s salary changed. It also explains a common surprise: your actual instalment at today’s package will be lower than the one the bank tested you against. That headroom is deliberate.
Can you run my TDSR with my actual income and commitments? →You are assessed at 4.0%, not at your quoted rate. The gap between the two is your safety margin, not your budget.
06 · Cohort proofThe cash gap nobody budgets
Loan capacity is the easy half. The other half has to be found.
At a S$1,843,000 purchase, the 75% loan is S$1,382,000 and the remaining S$461,000 is yours to find. At least 5% of the price must be cash — S$92,150 — with the balance payable from CPF.
Then Buyer’s Stamp Duty on top, then legal fees, then the valuation shortfall if the bank values the unit below the agreed price — that difference is payable in cash, always.
Budget the cash gap before the loan. The loan is arithmetic; the cash is the constraint that actually stops transactions.
The bigger the purchase, the larger the non-loan portion — S$461,000 at a S$1,843,000 price.
07 · The counter-caseWhere the maths breaks
The honest correction: three situations where the table above is wrong.
First, variable income. If a meaningful share of your income is commission, bonus or self-employment, banks typically haircut it — often by around 30%. A S$12,000 month of mostly variable income can be assessed closer to S$9,000, and the budget in our table for S$12,000 simply does not apply to you.
Second, age. Loan tenure is capped by age, and beyond certain thresholds the loan-to-value ceiling drops too. A 50-year-old on the same income as a 35-year-old will not get the same loan, and the gap can be large.
Third, existing debt. TDSR counts everything. A S$1,500 car instalment does not reduce your budget by S$1,500 — it reduces your loan by roughly S$314,000 at these assumptions. That is the single most expensive car most people ever buy.
Variable income, age and an existing car loan each move the answer more than most buyers expect.
08 · For youWhat it means for you
Four situations, four numbers.
If you are a first-timer
Run your income against the table before you view anything. If your number lands below S$12,000, the median private resale at S$1,700,000 is not your market yet — and knowing that early saves months.
If you are upgrading
Your existing mortgage counts against TDSR until it is discharged. Sequence matters: sell first and your capacity is clean, buy first and it is not.
If you carry a car loan
Each S$1,000 of monthly commitment costs roughly S$209,000 of loan capacity. Clearing it before you apply is often the highest-return financial move available to you.
If your income is variable
Assume a 30% haircut on the variable portion, then read the table. If the answer still works, you are genuinely comfortable.
What can you actually borrow?
Tell us your income band. We will run TDSR properly — with your commitments, your tenure cap and today’s package rates, not a generic calculator.
- Your maximum loan and supportable purchase price
- The cash-versus-CPF split at that price
- What clearing each existing commitment would give back
One WhatsApp message back — usually same day.
We’ll WhatsApp it shortly — usually within the day.
09 · ReferenceThe full income table
Every row, with the cash requirement alongside.
10 · MethodSources, limits and corrections
Data: URA caveat records, 2021-07 to 2026-07, private non-landed, Executive Condominiums excluded. Thresholds: minimum 40 transactions per reported group. Financing assumptions: 4.0% stress rate, 30-year tenure, 55% TDSR, 75% loan-to-value, no existing commitments. Not financial advice — your bank’s assessment governs. Reproducibility: every figure is produced by a script against the source dataset; corrections are made in place and dated. Not investment advice. Analysis of public records, published to be argued with.
Your number is not in this table. It is close to it.
Two minutes in the Scenario Planner runs your income, commitments and tenure against today’s packages.
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