“[The high Sora rate] annoyed us but it was not a factor that deterred us from purchasing a home. Money cannot buy time, and we wanted to get a house as soon as possible,” John explained. So for the next 16 months, the couple financed their housing loan at 3.7% for a resale flat in the north of the city-state that cost slightly more than $750,000.
The long-awaited interest rate cuts have widespread implications for the global economy. We explore some of the potential impacts on the everyday Singaporean
Like most Singaporean couples who had just registered their marriage, John and his wife were looking to purchase their first home in mid-2023 when interest rates in the US were at a sky-high 5%. The Singapore Overnight Rate Average (Sora), the new interbank lending rate based on actual transactions to price Singapore mortgages, stood at 3.7%, a far cry from the lows of 0.35% Sora in March 2022.
