“The low interest rate environment in recent years, which has been supporting residential buying demand, has come to an end,” Cushman & Wakefield Plc’s Singapore head of research Wong Xian Yang said. “Rising home loan rates create friction for the private homes market as buyers’ eroding purchasing power should dampen property demand.”
Singapore’s near decade-long spell of low interest rates has ended, with mortgage rates nearing an affordability tipping point that may hit borrowers’ disposable income and dent buyer demand.
The country’s biggest lender, DBS Group Holdings Ltd., raised the fixed rate on all of its home loan packages to 3.5% on Tuesday, according to its website. United Overseas Bank Ltd. bumped up its rates to as high as 3.85% for its three-year fixed product, while Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. upped its two-year product to 3.5%.
