How Much Can You Borrow For An HDB Flat In Q2 2026? LTV, Cash And Instalments At Five Prices

If you are looking at an HDB resale flat, the price tag is only half the story. The loan rules decide how much of that price a lender may finance, how much of the balance has to be cash rather than CPF, and what monthly income the servicing test requires before the loan is approved.

In this article, we look at the loan rules in force in Q2 2026 and what they work out to at five prices, from S$400,000 to S$1,100,000. We cover the loan-to-value (LTV) cap, which is the share of the price a loan may cover, the minimum cash portion, the stamp duty, the monthly instalment, and the income the servicing test needs. The figures come from this site's position engine, applying the published rules to each price.

The headline numbers: at S$400,000, a first housing loan is capped at S$300,000, or 75% of the price, with an instalment of S$1,423 a month at 3% over 25 years and an income requirement of about S$4,742 a month. At S$1,100,000, the same rules give a maximum loan of S$825,000, an instalment of S$3,912 and an income requirement of about S$13,041.

What Are The Loan Rules In Force?

The caps depend on how many housing loans you already have. Under the rules in force since 20 August 2024 (verified by us on 18 September 2026), a first housing loan is capped at 75% of the price with at least 5% of the price in cash. A second housing loan is capped at 45% with 25% cash, and a third or later loan at 35%. An HDB loan, the concessionary loan offered by HDB itself, is also capped at 75%, with no minimum cash portion.

The table below sets out each tier, including the reduced caps.

The reduced column applies when the loan tenure runs past 25 years for a flat, or when the borrower would be older than 65 at the end of the tenure. In those cases a first housing loan falls to 55% of the price and the minimum cash portion doubles to 10%. Note that the second and third tiers keep the same 25% minimum cash whether or not the reduced cap applies.

How Does The Servicing Test Work?

Two ratios sit alongside the LTV cap. The Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR) says your monthly debt repayments may not exceed 55% of gross monthly income. The Mortgage Servicing Ratio (MSR), which applies to flats, says the mortgage alone may not exceed 30% of gross monthly income. For an HDB flat purchase, the MSR is usually the binding one.

Both are checked at a stress rate rather than the rate you actually pay: 4% for a bank loan and 3% for an HDB loan. That is why the income figures in the tables that follow are larger for a bank loan at the same price. The illustrations assume a borrower aged 35, a 25-year tenure and an actual rate of 3%.

An HDB Loan At Five Prices

The first ladder takes an HDB loan across five prices, with a 25-year tenure. Because the HDB loan is stressed at 3%, the same rate as the illustrative actual rate, the instalment at the rate and the instalment at the stress rate are identical in every row.

The table below shows the maximum loan, the cash and CPF portions, the stamp duty, the instalment and the income the servicing test needs at each price.

At S$550,000, the maximum loan is S$412,500, the balance of S$137,500 may come from CPF or cash, stamp duty is S$11,100, and the instalment is S$1,956 a month against an income requirement of about S$6,520. Note that the minimum cash column is S$0 throughout: with an HDB loan the downpayment may be met entirely from CPF, subject to the balance in the account, which these figures do not check.

A Bank Loan For The Same Flat

Run the same five prices through a bank loan and the LTV cap and the instalment at 3% do not change, but two things do. A minimum cash portion of 5% of the price appears, and the servicing test is applied at the 4% stress rate instead of 3%.

The table below repeats the ladder for a bank loan on the same 25-year tenure.

At S$400,000, the maximum loan is still S$300,000, but S$20,000 must be cash and the income the test needs rises to about S$5,278, against S$4,742 under the HDB loan. At S$1,100,000, the cash minimum is S$55,000, the instalment at the stress rate is S$4,355 and the income requirement is about S$14,516. The instalment you would actually pay at 3% stays at S$3,912 in both tables; the stress rate affects the test, not the bill.

Summary

The rules in force in Q2 2026 cap a first housing loan at 75% of the price with at least 5% in cash, a second at 45% with 25% cash, and a third or later at 35%. Those caps fall to the reduced tier, 55% for a first loan, when the tenure runs past 25 years or the loan ends after age 65. The servicing test checks monthly debt at 4% for a bank loan or 3% for an HDB loan, against limits of 55% of gross income for total debt and 30% for the mortgage on a flat.

Worked through five prices on a 25-year tenure, the maximum loan runs from S$300,000 at a S$400,000 flat to S$825,000 at S$1,100,000, with instalments of S$1,423 and S$3,912 a month at 3%. These are indicative calculations of the published rules at stated prices, not a formal valuation of any home and not an offer of credit. They do not account for your CPF balance, other debts, the rate a lender would actually quote, or your eligibility for an HDB loan.

Method: the loan-to-value, cash and servicing rules as recorded in this site's rules file (LTV version 2024-08-20, servicing version 2022-09-30, verified 2026-09-18), applied by the position engine to a citizen buyer aged 35 over 25 years at the file's default rate; 'income the test needs' is the stress-rate instalment divided by the 30% MSR share for a flat or the 55% TDSR share otherwise, with no other debt. The rules must be checked against MAS, HDB and IRAS before anyone relies on them. Private figures are from URA Data Service caveats, HDB figures from data.gov.sg resale records, both loaded weekly by this site's ingest. Medians are of the non-excluded transactions in the period named; sales flagged by the hygiene rules (related-party transfers, bulk deals, outliers) are left out. Every figure is indicative and drawn from recorded transactions, not a formal valuation.