Friday, February 11, 2011

Bank housing loan vs HDB housing loan

Heard that banks now also offers housing loan and they claimed that the rates are lower than bank loan. So i do some readups on the internet and here i shall highlights some pointers found.

  • The HDB loan interest rate is 2.6% and it's almost certain it'll remain at 2.6% (becos it's pegged at 0.1% above the CPF interest rate, which has been 2.5% for quite many years).
    But with a bank loan, you'll have to be prepared for fluctuations after the 2nd or 3rd year (unless u refinance the loan).
  • Fixed interest rate is better than floating interest rate as it takes away the risk of fluctuating interest. banks always offer teaser rates for first two or three years. but note that their rates can change very fast.  and the repayments for the initial period of a loan goes towards servicing the interest components more than the principal sum. so when interest rate goes up, you are going to pay a lot more even if its just 1% higher.
  • HBD loan is the best for long term. It is peg 0.1 % above the interest given by CPF board. Bank loan fluctuate with the economy and will be much higher that than the CPF rate when economy is good. However, it does not go down as fast as when the economy goes down. Hence when economy is down, and you are out of job... then you are in big trouble, because you will be paying high
    bank interest and with no income then you will need to surrender your dream home.. But make sure you keep some spare $ in your ordinary account so that it can serve the loan if you are out of job.......
  • A user agrees that HDB loan should be the better option if given the choice, based on long term consideration.
I went to the UOB website and looked for the housing loan and indeed i saw their rates are in terms of 1st year, 2nd year, etc, see: http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/loans/property/hdb_home_loan.html




1 comment:

  1. Another article from mycpf mentioned that,

    Banks are thought to be less kind-hearted than HDB, so there is the risk of
    foreclosure if you default on your loan.

    Foreclosure means the bank will hold a forced sale of your home. From the sale, they will
    take the amount you owe the bank. They will return to you whatever is left over.

    Most importantly, you can't go back to HDB if bank rates suddenly rise above
    HDB's 2.6 per cent concessionary rate. This is likely to happen as our economy improves
    over the next year or two.

    http://mycpf.cpf.gov.sg/NR/rdonlyres/78BE0F3E-AD47-426F-91CE-BD60010686AF/0/HDBvsBankloan.pdf

    ReplyDelete

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