Replacing an existing home loan with a new one — usually for a lower rate or different lock-in. In Singapore you typically refinance every 2–3 years.
Refinancing is replacing your existing home loan with a new one — usually at a lower rate, a different lock-in period, or with a different bank.
In Singapore, refinancing every 2 – 3 years is normal. The mortgage market is competitive and banks frequently undercut each other on new-customer pricing while letting their existing borrowers drift to higher rates.
Repricing: stay with your current bank, switch to a different package they offer. Cheaper and faster — usually a S$300 – S$800 admin fee.
Refinancing: move to a new bank. More work (legal, valuation, fire insurance) but typically delivers a meaningfully lower rate and a fee subsidy from the new bank.
If your bank offers a competitive repricing rate, take it — you save on legal and valuation costs.
Legal fees: S$1,800 – S$3,000. Many banks subsidise S$1,800 – S$2,000.
Valuation fee: S$300 – S$500 (waived by some banks).
Fire insurance: S$50 – S$100 per year, required from completion.
Existing-loan prepayment penalty: 1.5% of outstanding principal if you exit during the lock-in.
Subsidy clawback: most banks claw back subsidies if you refinance away within 3 years of receiving them.
Lock-in expires: usually 1.5 – 2 years into a typical package. Start shopping ~6 months before, since refinancing applications take 4 – 8 weeks to process.
Big rate move: if SORA has fallen meaningfully (or fixed-rate offerings have dropped), the math of refinancing improves.
Break-even calculation: divide total switching costs by monthly savings. If you'll stay in the property longer than that break-even, refinance.
Use the Mortgage Calculator to model the new package against your existing one before committing.
Typically every 2 – 3 years, at the end of your lock-in period. Banks compete aggressively for new customers, so existing borrowers drift to higher rates unless they shop. Start the refinancing process 4 – 6 months before lock-in ends, since the application takes ~6 – 8 weeks.
Legal fees S$1,800 – S$3,000 (often subsidised by the new bank), valuation S$300 – S$500, and fire insurance S$50 – S$100/year. Many banks subsidise S$1,800 – S$2,000 of legal fees to win the deal. Total out-of-pocket is usually under S$500 after subsidies.
Refinancing moves the loan to a new bank (more savings, more paperwork). Repricing keeps you with the current bank but switches packages (cheaper and faster, smaller savings). If your bank offers a competitive repricing rate, take it — you skip the legal and valuation costs.
If you're inside the lock-in period (1.5% penalty on outstanding principal), if the new rate barely improves over your current one, if your remaining tenure is short (less time to recover switching costs), or if your TDSR / age would no longer support the new loan amount.