The minimum down payment on an EC can be more than 25 per cent. Consider this: as of 2024, ECs have an income ceiling of $16,000 per month. Now along with this income ceiling, there’s a Mortgage Servicing Ratio (MSR) that caps the monthly loan repayment to 30 per cent of your monthly income. (There’s also a Total Debt Servicing Ratio, or TDSR, that caps it to 55 per cent of your monthly income inclusive of other debts; but if you have so many big outstanding loans that this becomes a serious issue then ah…maybe now’s not the time to buy a property) Now let’s take, for example, Lumina Grand – the first EC launch in 2024. The average price given at launch was $1,464 psf. Let’s say you buy a 1,152 sq ft. unit. That’s a bit bigger than a 4-room flat, which is usually around 960+ sq. ft. At $1,464 psf, the price tag comes to $1,686,528. This means the maximum amount you can borrow (75 per cent) is $1,264,896....