Mortgage Servicing Ratio (MSR) in Singapore: Your Questions Answered
These are the questions people ask most often about mortgage servicing ratio (msr). Each answer is short; follow the links for the full detail.
What does a mortgage servicing ratio (msr) calculation tell me?
MSR caps the instalment on HDB flats and ECs bought from developers at 30% of gross monthly income.
What is the formula?
Maximum instalment = 30% × gross monthly income.
What do I need to enter?
Gross monthly household income (S$).
Should I rely on this before signing?
Use it to plan, then confirm the figures with your banker, lawyer or the IRAS stamp duty calculator before you exercise an option to purchase.
Can you show an example?
For example, with these inputs:
- Gross monthly household income (S$): 9,000
the calculator returns:
- Maximum monthly instalment (30%): S$2,700.00
Any tips?
- Stamp duty must be paid within 14 days of signing, so have the cash ready before you exercise the option.
- Budget for legal fees, valuation, renovation and moving costs on top of the downpayment and stamp duties.
- Banks test your TDSR at a stress-test rate, not the advertised rate, so your borrowing limit is lower than you might expect.
Background
Beyond the price, buyers should budget for legal fees, valuation, home insurance, renovation and furnishing. Running the figures in advance helps you decide how much cash to hold back and whether a smaller loan or longer tenure makes more sense.
Singapore's property market is shaped by cooling measures introduced since 2009, including Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty, loan-to-value limits and debt servicing ratios. These rules are adjusted when the market runs hot, so the numbers you see today may differ from what friends paid a few years ago.
CPF Ordinary Account savings can pay for the downpayment, stamp duties and monthly instalments, but using CPF reduces the money compounding for retirement, and the amount withdrawn plus accrued interest must be refunded to your CPF account when you sell.
Related calculations
- Rental Yield Calculator: Measures the return from rent before and after costs such as property tax, maintenance fees and agent fees.
- Home Loan Refinancing Calculator: Compares your current mortgage with a new rate to show the monthly saving and how long switching costs take to recover.
- Property Downpayment Calculator: Splits the downpayment into cash and CPF and shows the remaining loan.
- Buyer's Stamp Duty (BSD) Calculator: Calculates Buyer's Stamp Duty on a Singapore residential property using the tiered rates from 1% to 6%.
Try it yourself with the Mortgage Servicing Ratio (MSR) Calculator.
Run your own numbers: Mortgage Servicing Ratio (MSR) Calculator