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.) | 2.6% (HDB); 3M SORA + 0.75% (DBS floating) | ~2.5%-4.9%, plus fees | EIR ~1.9%-17.6% |
| Hard cap | Up to 75% LTV (bank or HDB loan) | 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, directly | Your bank account |
| Tenure | Up to 25-30 years | Up to 5 years | Up to 5-7 years |
Update, 13 October 2026: DBS now advertises its renovation loan from 4.88% p.a. (EIR 5.96%), not the 4.18% listed here in June, Maybank lends only to its own home loan customers, and OCBC's site says it does not offer renovation loans. DBS and Maybank both cap a renovation loan at the lower of S$30,000 or six times your monthly income, so one renovation loan from either will not cover a S$60,000 fit-out. Tenure tops out at five years.
The headline rate always looks gentler than what you pay. DBS takes a 2% handling fee and a 1% insurance premium out of the loan before any money moves, so the effective interest rate (EIR) you actually pay is meaningfully higher. Read the EIR explainer before you sign anything, because the headline rate is the number banks lead with and the EIR is the number that hits your wallet.
As of October 2026, DBS advertises its renovation loan from 4.88% p.a. (EIR 5.96%), its Eco-aware version from 4.68% (EIR 5.77%), and 3.38% (EIR 4.49%) if you hold an eligible DBS home loan. Maybank charges its own home loan customers 4.08% p.a. on a renovation loan of at least S$15,000 over at least three years, or 2.50% for the first year if their Maybank loan is on an HDB flat, plus a processing fee of 2% (minimum S$200). Maybank publishes no EIR, so its rate does not line up directly against the DBS EIRs. The money goes straight to your contractor, never to you. Verify the live rate on the bank's own page before applying; promotional rates move.
| Bank | Rate p.a. | EIR p.a. | Fees | Max tenure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DBS Renovation Loan | from 4.88% | 5.96% | 2% handling fee + 1% insurance premium | 5 years |
| DBS Eco-aware Renovation Loan | from 4.68% | 5.77% | 2% handling fee + 1% insurance premium | 5 years |
| DBS Renovation Loan (eligible DBS home loan customers) | 3.38% | 4.49% | 2% handling fee + 1% insurance premium | 5 years |
| Maybank Renovation Loan (Maybank home loan customers only) | 4.08% (2.50% in year one on an HDB home loan); min. S$15,000 over 3 years | Not published | 2% or S$200, whichever is higher | 5 years |
Here is the part the bank brochures bury. DBS's standard renovation loan at 4.88% comes to an EIR of 5.96% once its fees are counted. A sharp personal loan promo can undercut that. As of October 2026, UOB and CIMB advertise personal loans from 1.00% p.a. (EIR from 1.93% and 1.94%) with no processing fee. Standard Chartered CashOne starts at 0.90% p.a., an EIR of 2.15% once its S$199 first-year fee is counted (on S$20,000 over five years). GXS charges no processing, early-repayment or late fees on its FlexiLoan, though a late payment still costs 28% p.a. in interest, and its Reno Club rate starts at 1.6% p.a. (EIR 3%). Each of these is the lender's lowest published rate; the rate you are offered depends on your credit profile and tenure.
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 secured against the flat, which is why it can run for 25 to 30 years. Some personal loans advertise EIRs below the HDB loan's 2.6%, but those are each lender's lowest rate, for much smaller sums and shorter tenures. For HDB buyers, the HDB concessionary loan rate is 2.6% p.a. from 1 October to 31 December 2026, pegged at 0.1% above the CPF Ordinary Account rate. DBS does not list its fixed home loan rates online; on its Two-In-One home loan, the floating part is priced at 3-month compounded SORA, as published by MAS, plus 0.75% p.a.
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 a first housing loan at 75% of the price, whether it comes from a bank or from HDB, 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. None of these three loans pays out if a pipe bursts mid-fit-out; that gap is what renovation insurance covers.
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 DBS renovation loan at 4.88% (EIR 5.96%) over five years, plus paying the remaining S$15,000 in cash. Option B: a single S$45,000 personal loan at UOB's lowest published rate of 1.00% p.a. (EIR 1.93%) over five years, if you qualify for it, 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.
DBS and Maybank cap renovation loans at the lower of S$30,000 or six times your monthly income, and not every bank offers one: OCBC does not, and Maybank lends only to its own home loan customers. 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. A personal loan has no usage restriction and a higher ceiling. As of October 2026, UOB and CIMB advertise EIRs from 1.93% and 1.94%, and Standard Chartered's comes to 2.15% with its first-year fee, while DBS quotes EIRs of 4.49% to 5.96% on its renovation loans. Those personal loan figures are each lender's lowest rate, and yours depends on your credit profile. 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, so verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.
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