Monday, October 8, 2012

Business as usual despite new housing loan restrictions!


According to reports, more than 300 units have been sold at Allgreen Properties' 920-unit Riversails, with at least 20 homes sold over the weekend. Prices of the larger units average slightly over $800psf while the one-bedroom units average $1,000psf.

The larger units (three-bedrooms and above) at the 99-year project have been doing well, with quite a few sold to upgraders. Three out of the five stacks of one-bedroom units launched have been sold.

Over at Sky Miltonia, 67% of units at this 420-unit have found buyers. The developer is offering an 18% discount and throwing in the option for buyers of certain units to upgrade their flooring to marble.

The 748-unit eCO in Bedok South has thrown in an additional 2% furniture voucher in addition to an array of discounts offered.

According to our central bank, the average tenure for new residental property loans jumped from 25 years to 29 over the last three years. Over 45% of the new home loans have tenures exceeding 30 years.

Lower initial monthly repayments from long loan tenures and low interest rates may cause borrowers to overestimate their loan servicing ability, says MAS (The Monestary Authority of Singapore).

Our blog posting on the new housing loan restrictions have generated a fair amount of discussion between our readers (which the wife and I are extremely pleased, as it is another small indication that  people actually read our blog). A few have expressed the opinion that the new restrictions will have little to no impact on demand. But if it is indeed true that over 45% of the current new home loans are more than 30 years, we believe that the "penalty" imposed on loan tenures that exceed 30 years will have a significant effect on demand going forward. Already units at new launches are not flying off the shelves as they used to be just a couple of months ago.

While we cannot claim to be a representative sample, the new restrictions have effectively put us out of the market for a second property - the longest tenure that the wife and I can qualify for a new housing loan is about 20 years, else we be hit with the new LTV ratio of 40% of the property value should we decide to extend the loan period beyond the retirement age of 65 years.

And we are pretty sure that we are not alone in this predicament.

Having said that, the fear of potential (especially younger, first-time) buyers being lulled into complacency by the combination of lower initial monthly repayment with a longer loan tenure and low interest rates are very real indeed. We were once guilty of such back in our early days of property venture, and it took a bout of rising interest rates to jolt us back to reality...







11 comments:

May said...

Hi, if I'm 36 years old and I intend to get 80% loan, it means I can only loan up to 29 years. Is this right with the new cooling measure?

Would you advise for me to save up the other 20% before I buy a property for home stay? this will be my first property with no outstanding loan at the moment.

Thanks.

May said...

Save up the other 20% meaning, I made a downpayment of 40% instead of 20%.

Which is more advisable?

20% more is quite a long time to save up..

Anonymous said...

banker says mkt all very quiet @11/10/2012.

The Folks @PropTalk said...

Hi May,

Yes, you are right.

And with regard to the options you presented, it all depend on whether you are comfortable with the monthly repayment for a 29-year loan.

The actual monthly repayment quantum may be higher but the total interest quantum payable will be lower. It may not matter too much now given the low interest rate environment but it will become a concern once interest rate starts to climb.

The wife and I will always take the shorter loan tenure if we can afford the (higher) monthly repayment.

Hope that helps!

Anonymous said...

Take maximum long loan tenure (with no intention to use this tenure).

Make capital repayments as and when.

May said...

thanks for the replies. I will save harder :-)

Anonymous said...

must wait until 2014 ?

Anonymous said...

Buy what you can (truly) afford, is always the best advice.

Anonymous said...

what is true affordability. Our officiales say earn 1000 monthly also can afford HDB as owner

Anonymous said...

Are you sure you need the minister or anyone tells you what is yr own true affordability?!

Woode Financial Services said...

WOODE FINANCIAL SERVICES.

Woode Financial Services is a register/accredited finance company which provides a high standard of financial (LOAN) services to private and corporate clients. Do you need funds as investors? Are you in financial mess? Do you need a loan? We offer loan from the range of $5,000 to $5,000,000 (USD, EUR, GBP,) OR its EQUIVALENT IN OTHER CURRENCIES. We offer loan at an annual basic interest rate of 3% from a duration of 1 to 35 years to serious and trustworthy clients, interested clients is advice to forward their request to us via e-mail: woodefinancialservices@gmail.com

Post a Comment