People search for "value to loan ratio" but the regulated term in Singapore is the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio: the slice of a home's price or valuation a lender may finance. For a first housing loan the cap is 75%, so you fund the other 25% yourself, with at least 5% in cash. It falls to 45% for a second loan and 35% for a third. Stretch the tenure past 30 years or borrow beyond age 65 and those caps drop again, to 55%, 25% and 15%. Get the ratio wrong and you find out you are short tens of thousands in cash weeks before completion.
The ratio compares the loan against the property's value. Banks and HDB take the lower of the purchase price or their own valuation, then lend up to a fixed percentage of that figure. Borrow $750,000 against a $1,000,000 flat and your LTV is 75%. The 25% gap is your down payment, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) sets how big that gap has to be.
The phrase people type into Google is "value to loan ratio", but every bank application, HDB letter of offer and MAS notice calls it the loan-to-value ratio. Same idea, flipped wording. If you want the one-line definition, our LTV glossary entry keeps it short.
The trap is the word "valuation". If the seller asks $1.05m but the bank values the unit at $1.00m, your 75% loan is computed on the $1.00m, not the asking price. The $50,000 difference, known as cash over valuation, comes entirely out of your pocket on top of the down payment.
The headline caps depend on how many housing loans you already carry. The first loan is the most generous; each additional one tightens sharply, which is MAS's way of cooling property speculation. These limits apply to both bank loans and the HDB concessionary loan.
Two conditions decide the higher cap in each row: the loan tenure must not exceed 30 years (25 years for an HDB flat), and the loan must not run past your 65th birthday. Break either condition and you drop to the lower limit in the same row.
| Loan | Standard LTV | Min cash | Reduced LTV* | Min cash (reduced) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First housing loan | 75% | 5% | 55% | 10% |
| Second housing loan | 45% | 25% | 25% | 25% |
| Third+ housing loan | 35% | 25% | 15% | 25% |
*The reduced LTV kicks in when the loan tenure is longer than 30 years (or longer than 25 years for an HDB flat), or when repayment extends beyond age 65. A 35-year-old taking a 35-year loan triggers it because the loan ends at age 70. So does a 60-year-old taking a 20-year loan, because it ends at 80.
The down payment is whatever the LTV does not cover. At 75% LTV you fund 25%, split into a cash floor and a portion you may pay with CPF Ordinary Account savings. For a first loan that floor is 5% cash; the remaining 20% can be CPF, cash, or a mix.
Take a $1,200,000 condo on a first bank loan. The bank lends up to $900,000 (75%). You bring $300,000: at least $60,000 in cash (5%) and the other $240,000 from CPF OA or cash. Drop to the 55% reduced band and the loan shrinks to $660,000, the cash floor doubles to $120,000 (10%), and your total upfront jumps to $540,000.
Second and subsequent loans demand 25% in cash regardless, because CPF cannot cover the cash floor on additional properties. That alone stops many would-be investors. Run your own figures through the mortgage calculator before you commit to an Option to Purchase.
Since 20 August 2024 the HDB concessionary loan and bank loans share the same 75% LTV ceiling. Before that date HDB lent up to 80%, so anyone who bought after the change had to find an extra 5% of the flat price upfront. The cut was a deliberate cooling move, not an HDB quirk.
Where they split is everything else. The HDB loan charges a fixed 2.6% per annum (pegged at 0.1% above the CPF OA rate and reviewed quarterly), runs for up to 25 years, and is gated by a $14,000 gross monthly household income ceiling. A bank loan has no income ceiling, stretches to 30 years on a flat, and prices off SORA, recently around 2.5% to 3.3% depending on the package. Our side-by-side HDB loan vs bank loan comparison runs the long-term cost.
One practical edge: an HDB loan lets you pay the full 25% down payment with CPF and keep almost no cash aside, while a bank loan still requires that 5% cash floor. For a young buyer with a thin bank balance but healthy CPF, that difference decides the purchase.
Qualifying for 75% LTV does not mean you can borrow it. Two income rules sit on top. The Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR) caps all your monthly debt repayments at 55% of gross income. The Mortgage Servicing Ratio (MSR) caps the home loan alone at 30% of gross income, and it applies only to HDB flats and Executive Condominiums.
Banks also stress-test you. They assess affordability at a medium-term rate of 4% per annum even when your actual rate is far lower, so the loan you qualify for is smaller than today's cheap rate suggests. The TDSR rule is the one that most often caps a high earner below the LTV they expected.
Lease and age also bite. A flat with a short remaining lease can cut how much CPF you may use and push the bank to a conservative valuation, quietly dragging your effective loan below the headline 75%.
You cannot beat the LTV cap, but you can avoid tripping into the reduced band and losing 20 percentage points of financing. A few levers matter more than the rest.
Yes. "Value to loan ratio" is how many Singaporeans phrase the search, but the official MAS and HDB term is loan-to-value (LTV) ratio. Both describe the loan as a percentage of the property's price or valuation, whichever is lower.
It is 75% of the lower of price or valuation, for both HDB and bank loans, provided the tenure is 30 years or less (25 for HDB) and the loan ends by age 65. Otherwise the cap falls to 55%, requiring a 10% cash down payment instead of 5%.
At 75% LTV you fund 25% of the property. The cash floor is 5% of the price for a first loan; the other 20% can be CPF Ordinary Account or cash. On a $1,000,000 home that is at least $50,000 in cash plus up to $200,000 from CPF or cash.
On 20 August 2024 MAS and HDB lowered the HDB concessionary loan LTV from 80% to 75% as a property cooling measure. Buyers from that date now need a 25% down payment instead of 20%, an extra 5% of the flat price upfront.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.