By guest contributor Gerald Tay

On 5^th October, Friday, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced that it was capping the length of a home loan at 35 years. With effect from 6^th October, 2012:

1. All residential property loans will be subjected to a maximum of 35 years loan tenure, including HDB mortgage loan tenures.
2. Tighter rules will apply to borrowers taking loans longer than 30 years, or who want to have their loan periods extend beyond the retirement age of 65.
3. If they already have an existing mortgage and want to take another one that require these tighter rules for another property, the cash down payment is 60 per cent, instead of the current 40 per cent.
4. Same rules apply for refinancing loans.
5. Non-individual borrowers now subject to 40% loan limit (down from 50%)

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