If you are buying a flat and doing it up, you are juggling two different products that people lump together as one home and renovation loan. They are not the same animal. A home loan buys the property and runs for decades at a low secured rate; a renovation loan is a small, capped, fixed-rate loan only for the works. And a third option, a plain personal loan, often beats the renovation loan once you add furniture or blow past S$30,000. This guide gives you the 2026 numbers for each so you stop overpaying for the wrong one.
A home loan and a renovation loan get bundled in conversation because you take them at the same time, but they behave nothing alike. The home loan is secured against your property, so the bank prices it cheaply and lets you stretch it over 25 to 30 years. The renovation loan is an unsecured, purpose-restricted loan with a hard cap, designed only to pay your contractor for fixed works.
The personal loan is the wildcard. It is also unsecured, but it has no usage restriction and a much higher ceiling, which is why it quietly wins for anyone whose spend includes furniture, appliances or a budget that keeps moving. Knowing which bucket your spend falls into is the whole game.
If you are still deciding how to finance the property itself, our HDB loan vs bank loan comparison covers that choice in full. This article focuses on the works.
| Feature | Home loan | Renovation loan | Personal loan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Secured? | Yes, against the property | No | No |
| Typical rate (p.a.) | ~1.4%-1.9% (SORA / fixed) | ~4.1%-6.5% flat | EIR ~1.8%-13%+ |
| Hard cap | Up to 75% LTV (private) / 80% (HDB) | S$30,000 or 6x monthly income | Up to 8-10x monthly income |
| What it pays for | The property purchase | Fixed renovation works only | Anything |
| Funds go to | The seller / developer | Your contractor, by GIRO | Your bank account |
| Tenure | Up to 25-30 years | Up to 5 years | Up to 5-7 years |
A renovation loan in Singapore is capped at the lower of S$30,000 or six times your monthly income. That cap is an industry norm the major banks all hold to, so do not expect to borrow your way to a S$60,000 fit-out through one renovation loan. Tenure tops out at five years.
Rates are quoted as a flat rate, which always looks gentler than it is. The bank charges interest on the full original sum for the whole tenure, so the effective interest rate (EIR) you actually pay is meaningfully higher. Read the EIR explainer before you sign anything, because the flat rate is the number banks lead with and the EIR is the number that hits your wallet.
As of June 2026, DBS and OCBC advertise renovation loans from 4.18% p.a. flat (DBS EIR around 4.91%, OCBC EIR around 5.19%), while CIMB sits near 4.15% flat and Maybank is higher at roughly 6.53% flat. Funds are disbursed straight to your contractor by GIRO, never to you. Verify the live rate on the bank's own page before applying; promotional rates move.
| Bank | Flat rate p.a. | EIR p.a. | Processing fee | Max tenure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DBS Renovation Loan | from 4.18% | ~4.91% | 1% of loan | 5 years |
| DBS Eco-Aware Renovation | from 4.68% | ~5.41% | 1% of loan | 5 years |
| OCBC Renovation Loan | from 4.18% | ~5.19% | S$0 (0.5% handling) | 5 years |
| CIMB Renovation-i | from 4.15% | ~varies | 1.2% of loan | 5 years |
| Maybank Renovation Loan | from 6.53% | ~varies | 1.25% or S$150 | 5 years |
Here is the part the bank brochures bury. The 4.18% flat rate on a renovation loan converts to an EIR near 5%. A sharp personal loan promo can undercut that. As of June 2026, Standard Chartered CashOne advertises from 0.90% p.a. flat (EIR around 1.75%), UOB and CIMB sit near 1.00% flat (EIR roughly 1.93%-1.94%), and digital lender GXS charges no processing, early-repayment or late fees at all, with its Reno Club rate from around 1.6% p.a. (EIR about 3%). Confirm each on the lender's site, since these are headline promos tied to specific tenures and amounts.
A personal loan also clears the S$30,000 ceiling, lending up to roughly 8 to 10 times your monthly income, and the cash lands in your account so you can pay for furniture, appliances and a sofa the renovation loan flatly refuses to cover. The catch: a personal loan counts toward your unsecured credit limit and your debt servicing, which matters if your home loan is still being assessed.
Before you commit either way, run the monthly repayment through our renovation cost calculator so the instalment is sized against your actual budget, not a round number. Borrowing the cap because it is there is how people end up paying interest on cash they never needed.
The home loan is the cheapest borrowing in this whole exercise because it is secured against the flat. For HDB buyers, the HDB concessionary loan rate is 2.6% p.a. from 1 January to 31 March 2026, pegged at 0.1% above the CPF Ordinary Account rate. Bank home loans are even lower on paper right now: DBS fixed packages sit around 1.5%-1.9% p.a. and SORA-pegged floating packages start near 1.4% p.a., tracking the 3-month compounded SORA published by MAS plus the bank's spread.
You cannot pay for renovation out of a home loan, but the choice between fixed and floating still shapes your total cash flow during the years you are also repaying the works. Our fixed vs floating mortgage comparison walks through which suits a tight post-renovation budget.
Two limits gate how much home loan you get. Loan-to-value caps the loan at 75% for a bank loan or 80% for an HDB loan, and the Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR) caps all your monthly debt repayments at 55% of gross income. That second limit is exactly why stacking a renovation loan or a large personal loan on top can shrink the home loan you qualify for.
The order you borrow in changes how much you can borrow. Your home loan is assessed against TDSR, so any unsecured loan you take first eats into the 55% headroom. If you draw a S$30,000 renovation loan or a S$50,000 personal loan before your mortgage is approved, the monthly instalment on that debt reduces the housing loan the bank is willing to extend.
The clean sequence for most buyers: get the home loan approved and the keys collected first, then take the renovation loan or personal loan once the property financing is locked in. For HDB buyers there is a timing rule worth knowing, which we cover in the renovation after key collection guide.
One more cost most people forget: renovation works are not covered by your HDB fire insurance or a basic home policy. Sort out renovation insurance before the contractor starts, because a burst pipe mid-fit-out is not something any of these three loans will refund.
Say your contractor quotes S$38,000 and you want another S$7,000 for a sofa, dining set and appliances. The S$45,000 total breaks the renovation loan in two ways: it is above the S$30,000 cap, and the furniture portion is ineligible.
Option A: a S$30,000 renovation loan at 4.18% flat over five years, plus paying the remaining S$15,000 in cash. Option B: a single S$45,000 personal loan at, say, 1.00% flat (EIR near 1.93%) over five years, covering everything in one instalment. If you have the cash for the gap, Option A keeps your unsecured exposure lower. If you do not, Option B is usually cheaper than splitting into a renovation loan plus a credit card or a second loan for the furniture.
There is no universal winner. The decision turns on three things: whether your spend exceeds S$30,000, whether it includes ineligible items, and whether you have spare cash to top up. Price both before you pick.
No. A home loan is a large, secured loan that buys the property over 25 to 30 years at a low rate, while a renovation loan is a small, unsecured, fixed-rate loan capped at S$30,000 that pays only for renovation works. You typically take both, but they are separate products with different rates, caps and rules.
Renovation loans are capped at the lower of S$30,000 or six times your monthly income, across all the major banks. If your works cost more than that, or include furniture and appliances, a personal loan that lends up to roughly eight to ten times your income is the usual workaround.
Yes, and it is often the smarter move. A personal loan has no usage restriction, a higher ceiling, and as of June 2026 some promos carry an EIR below 2%, which can beat a renovation loan's flat rate once converted. The trade-off is that it counts toward your unsecured credit and debt servicing limits.
It can. Your home loan is assessed under the Total Debt Servicing Ratio, which caps all monthly debt repayments at 55% of gross income. An unsecured loan taken before your mortgage is approved adds to that total, so it is best to lock in the home loan first and borrow for renovation afterwards.
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.