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Latest home loans, available from 30 July to 20 August 2012. Hurry! New promotional home loans, in celebration of Singapore's 47th birthday! Now you can have a 5 year fixed home loan at 1.5% only. Read more

saving money should not be complicated.

Property loan is a good loan. Personal loan is a bad loan, just like car loan. Property provide rental income. It's an asset class that's held dearly by many owners and investors in today's environment. My advise is to take advantage of low interest rates within your affordable level (Govt advocate a 35% DSR). Why pay off when interest rates are low? Use the $ to invest. Pay off when interest rates are exorbitant.

I like to agree with you. If your view is Fed is not moving, then make a calculated decision. I prefer to enjoy low rates when the macro economy and interest rate environment is to your advantage. I would have ample opportunities to worry about high interest rates when Fed increases their rates.

While I am not sure your loan quantum and property type, you can click to compare the best home loan rates.

Your concerns are exactly the reasons why I started my home loan portal. Full transparency. No hidden fees. You compare and contact the bankers directly.

consider Maybank or RHB

I would like to provide some info.. Best loan is subjective as everyone's definition of best is different. Some may like fixed, some SOR, some SIBOR.. and there is 1M or 3M SIBOR. And lock-in period, no of years of fire insurance, etc. Perhaps we can look at some facts. While we cannot predict the future, I believe you can make an informed judgement call. Trend of SIBOR over SOR - SIBOR is more stable. SOR is more volatile. Trend of 1M over 3M SIBOR - relatively similar while 1M SIBOR is almost always lower than 3M SIBOR. Board rates - while many people had bad experiences in the past before SIBOR become the norm, most board rates have been unchanged for past few years. However once bitten, twice shy holds true for many people. Spread - this is something that remain constant and perhaps within your control to decide which spread to go for. Legal clawback - its 99% 3 years. Meaning if you refinance within 3 years, you must pay back the legal subsidy in full. Not pro-rated. In fact, I am just like everyone of you, always pondering on what the best loan are for my properties. So I have launched a home loan portal that I am most confident to say that it is the most transparent and independent. Why? Because I am like you, I like to know everything to compare mortgages.

Hi, I wrote this article for discussion! HDB loan or bank loan? Reasons to choose a BANK loan Following up on the article comparing HDB loan with bank loan and explaining the reasons why a HDB loan is better, I like to visit the reasons why some HDB owners take up a bank loan and why a bank loan is better than HDB loan. Eligibility for a HDB concessionary loan Those who are not eligible have to apply for a bank loan for their HDB. In this situation, it's clear-cut. The only comparison you should make is which bank loan is more suitable for you. You should use the New Home Loan Calculator that will compute the interest payable and monthly installments of all HDB home loans provided by banks in Singapore. For those who are eligible for a HDB loan, please read on for points to consider why a HDB bank loan might be better. Loan quantum The rising prices of property in Singapore means HDB flats (BTO, DBSS or resale) are at record prices. With the cooling measures implemented by the Singapore government, the COV portion is decreasing and seemed to be stabilizing. However, this only mean lesser cash upfront as COV can only be paid by cash. The valuation of HDB flats are higher than before, which means a higher loan quantum is required if one takes up a 80% loan from the bank. A bigger loan quantum means the higher-end of the legal subsidy can be obtained, and more savings can be achieved as long as bank loan interest rates are lower than HDB interest rate of 2.6%. Legal subsidy Whether you are taking up a HDB bank loan for a new home or refinance, lawyer fees are payable by you. Do not worry as banks will offer legal subsidy, about 0.4% or up to $2,500, whichever is lower. Typical lawyer fees is about $2,500. So a loan of $500,000 may attract a subsidy of $2,000 and the home buyer will pay the balance of $500. Low interest rates Interest rate in today's environment is low and in fact, at all-time low. Is the direction only upwards or will remain low? Though your guess is good as mine, we can take cue from the past and what the world is doing. US Federal Reserve seemed to intend to keep interest rates low till 2014. The various HDB bank loans are based on SIBOR, SOR or bank board rates on top of a spread. These bank loan rates are around 1% for floating while fixed rates is higher at 1.4% to 2%. Risk appetite This is a question that many home buyers failed to ask themselves first. Yes they want low and constant interest rates. No they don't want changes and volatility in interest rates. However, these two points seldom agree with each other. The perceived fixed rate of 2.6% for HDB concessionary loan is not exactly correct. It is not fixed. It is just that HDB has not revised and pegged it differently since day one. Time horizon Buying a BTO, DBSS, SERS or resale HDB flat comes with a Minimum Occupation Period which is currently between 5 to 7 years. So regardless of your future upgrading plans, you must serviced the mortgage for 5 to 7 years at least, before you can sell and redeem fully the loan. This will be an important factor in reasoning why a bank loan might be better than a HDB loan. Savings from a HDB bank loan over a HDB loan Scenario 1 Mr Tan and family prefers fixed packages and they actually think the HDB loan of 2.6% will provide them a peace of mind. They will be purchasing a flat and intend to borrow $400,000. Mr Tan aspire to upgrade the HDB flat to a private apartment after 5 years. They wonder what the packages are available in the market. They use the Refinance Loan Calculator and noticed the 5 year fixed package with rates of 1.8% fixed for the first 5 years and SIBOR + 1.15% thereafter. Based on 35 years of loan tenure, the monthly savings are $167 and $10,000 over 5 years! This is a significant savings despite some outlay after the legal subsidy of a bank loan. He asked the banker to compute the numbers if the nett interest rate increases to 4% hypothetically from year 6 onwards. It would have taken him another 4 years till year 9, before the $10,000 savings disappears. So his considerations are: the fixed $10,000 savings over 5 years, a smaller outstanding loan amount after 5 years, the opportunity to refinance or reprice after 5 years without incurring legal clawback, his upgrading plans after the MOP expires, the likelihood of 4% interest rate from year 6 onwards, another 4 years till year 9 before the $10,000 savings disappears,. He decided that this HDB bank loan is suitable for his family. For more scenarios, check out the Featured articles at FindaHomeLoan.sg