Written Answer by Ministry of National Development on statistics on mortgage and total debt servicing ratios among HDB resale flat buyers by percentile on annual basis

Nov 1, 2021


Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis: To ask the Minister for National Development since 2013 (a) what is the 25th percentile, mean, median and 75th percentile mortgage servicing ratio among HDB resale flat buyers on an annual basis; and (b) what is the 25th percentile, mean, median and 75th percentile total debt servicing ratio among HDB resale flat buyers on an annual basis.   

Answer:

The Housing and Development Board (HDB) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) impose caps on the mortgage servicing ratio (MSR) and total debt servicing ratio (TDSR) on HDB borrowers, to encourage financial prudence when making property purchases. The MSR is capped at 30% and applies to housing loans granted by both HDB and Financial Institutions (FIs) for the purchase of a HDB flat, or an Executive Condominium (EC) unit that is within the minimum occupation period. The TDSR cap is 60%[1] and only applies to housing loans granted by FIs, including those extended to HDB flat buyers.

The MSR and TDSR for HDB flat buyers are generally well below their respective limits in the period from 2013 to 2021 (till Q3), and the figures are shown in Table 1.
 

Table 1: MSR and TDSR from 2013 to 2021 (till Q3)

table 1

Note: ^ The TDSR data for HDB flat buyers taking up a housing loan from financial institutions covers both HDB new and resale flat buyers.

[1] MAS expects any property loan extended by Financial Institutions (FIs) to not exceed a TDSR threshold of 60%. TDSR considers repayments for all debt obligations, including unsecured debt and car loans, in addition to the property loan.