The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will relax its home financing rules for homebuyers who had committed to residential property purchases before the rules were announced last year.
This applies to buyers of private property who had signed an option to purchase the property before June 29, 2013.
If they are the occupiers of the property, they will be exempt from the Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR) rules.
For those who bought the property for investment, they will have until June 30, 2017, to reduce their debt – such that their monthly debt repayments do not exceed 60 percent of their income.
HDB and Executive Condominium (EC) owners, who bought before the mortgage servicing rules for these categories were introduced, will enjoy similar exemptions.
MAS latest move was welcomed by the banking industry.
Ms Koh Ching Ching, group head of corporate communications at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC), said: “Some borrowers with good reasons to refinance will now face less difficulties in doing so. The older home loans were not assessed with the new TDSR rules and hence the exemption for properties bought before the introduction of the stipulated TDSR rules is therefore fair.”
Source : Channel NewsAsia – 10 Feb 2014