Latest home-loan skirmish also sees banks speeding up their approvals A skirmish of sorts has broken out on the home loans front with banks pushing down their interest rates a notch or two over the past week or so. The first volley was fired by DBS Bank and the others have responded. This is welcome news for home owners and investors who are looking to re-price or refinance their home loans. The rates...
Finance
Singapore banks are not likely to see a significant jump in home loans growth this year. According to analysts, that's because they do not expect the number of transactions to increase greatly from last year as the steam runs out of the mass market property segment. But they said support could come from interest in the mid-tier to high-end property sectors. Singapore's property market has been on a run....
Should you join the crowd? If you have top-notch credit, and expect to stay in your home for several years, refinancing may make financial sense. You probably won't have any difficulty getting a loan, provided you have adequate income that you can document. But for everyone else, the calculations have become increasingly complicated. And you're unlikely to qualify for the lowest advertised...
Some banks are rolling out new services and attractive mortgage packages to increase their market share in the private housing loan sector. Banks such as Standard Chartered has set up a service counter to offer loan evaluations at show flats. Said Dennis Khoo, general manager of Wealth Management Consumer Banking at Standard Chartered Bank: "I think it's even better prudence because before (a buyer) puts...
The demand for home loans has escalated, on the back of the booming property market in Singapore. Some banks, like OCBC, said they have seen loan approvals double in the second quarter, compared to the first three months. And industry players expect this momentum to continue into next year. Private home sales in Singapore have been on the rise since February, where 11 times more home were sold...
HSBC is shaking up the home-loans market here by offering a so-called benefits portability feature in such loans. It is enabling its home loan customers who sell their property to continue from where they left off on the sliding interest rate spread on their new home loans. For example, if a customer sells the property in the third year of the loan, he can enjoy a first year loan interest rate of 1.69...
DESPITE the current global economic downturn, home buyers today are still spoilt for choice when it comes to taking a loan from financial institutions here. Since January 2003, buyers of Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats no longer have to take a loan from the Government-backed provider of more than 82 per cent of Singapore's homes. And since then, the HDB has stopped giving out what it terms...
More banks here offering new competitive rates A HOME loan war is hotting up among banks in Singapore, with new player the State Bank of India (SBI) and Standard Chartered Bank launching attractive home loan packages this week that could potentially stir other banks to respond with even more competitive packages. SBI - India's largest bank that only started operations here last year - has offered a...
The Singapore government will not step in to underwrite existing bank loans to property developers for now. This is because loans and other financing options are still available despite the current credit crunch, said National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan in Parliament on Monday. The economy is facing a difficult recession, but Singapore property developers may have been spared the brunt of the...
UNITED Overseas Bank has become the first in Singapore to tie up with Singapore Post to distribute HDB home loans, extending its mortgage services beyond its 57 branches. In recent years, more banks have started offering their services in non-traditional spaces - such as train stations, convenience stores and petrol kiosks - to reach out to customers. Yesterday, UOB said its HDB home loans will be, for...