What your salary actually buys. The honest table.
Everyone asks what they can afford and almost nobody is given the arithmetic. The answer is not a rule of thumb and it is not what the mortgage broker says you might stretch to. It is a specific number produced by three regulations working in sequence, and once you see the sequence you can compute your own ceiling in about a minute.
Farhan Adenan · 22 Aug 2026 · 10 min read
- At the top of what each product allows: an HDB flat reaches $1.41m on the $16,000 ceiling, a new EC $1.51m on its $18,000 ceiling, and a private condominium $2.77m on that same $18,000.
- The gap is MSR: HDB flats and ECs from developers are capped at 30% of income, against 55% under TDSR for private. Income ceilings bind too — $16,000 for a flat, $18,000 for a new EC, both raised on 24 August 2026.
- Banks size your loan at a stress-test rate of 4.0%, not the rate you are quoted — and that applies to an EC as much as to a condo. An HDB concessionary loan is different: it is sized at the 2.6% rate you actually pay, over 25 years.
- One $1,500 car loan costs that same household about $419,000 of private buying power. Existing debt is the most expensive thing in the table.
- CPF is capped too. At the $8,000 Ordinary Wage ceiling the most one employee adds to their OA is $1,840 a month. A couple at the top of the HDB ceiling generates $3,680 against an MSR allowance of $4,800 — and at the EC ceiling, $3,680 against $5,400. The rest is cash.
TDSR 55%, MSR 30% and LTV limits of 75% / 45% / 35% are as published by MAS. A 4.0% medium-term stress rate applies to loans from banks — private property, and an EC bought from a developer. An HDB concessionary loan is sized at the 2.6% concessionary rate over a 25-year tenure. HDB flats and new ECs are also subject to household income ceilings, raised to $16,000 and $18,000 on 24 August 2026. All tables assume no other debt unless stated, and are illustrative arithmetic — your bank’s assessment will differ.
How the number is actually built
One number, squeezed five times. Watch where it actually shrinks.
Illustrative: no other debt, all-fixed income, first property, 30-year tenure. MSR replaces TDSR at 30% for HDB flats and ECs bought from the developer.
Two of these stages do most of the damage, and both come before the ratio. Variable income — bonus, commission, rental, dividends — is counted at 70%, so a household on a heavily bonus-weighted package borrows meaningfully less than its payslip suggests. And existing debt comes off the top, before anything else is calculated.
The stress test is the step nobody expects. The bank does not size your loan on the 2-point-something rate it is offering you. It sizes it at 4.0% for private property — and for an executive condominium, because an EC from a developer is a bank loan too. Shopping for a better rate lowers what you pay each month; it does not raise what you are allowed to borrow. An HDB concessionary loan is the exception on this page: it is sized at the 2.6% rate you actually pay, over a 25-year tenure.
The table: private property
Find your household income. That is the ceiling, before any debt.
TDSR 55%, stress-tested at 4.0%, 30-year tenure, 75% LTV, and crucially ZERO other debt. Rounded to the nearest thousand.
The rule of thumb hiding in this table is roughly 154 times your monthly household income. A $10,000 household supports about $1.54 million; an $18,000 household about $2.77 million; a $20,000 household about $3.07 million. It scales linearly because every input is a percentage — which also means it collapses linearly the moment you add debt.
The right-hand column is not what you need in the bank. That is the purchase price. You also need the 25% that the loan does not cover — $691,000 on a $2.77 million property, of which at least 5% must be cash — plus Buyer’s Stamp Duty, legal fees and, for a second property, 20% ABSD on top. Affordability is two tests, not one: can you borrow it, and can you fund the gap.
And the ceiling is not the target. Borrowing the maximum means every rate move, income change and repair bill lands on a budget with nothing behind it. The table tells you what is permitted. What is sensible is usually a good deal lower.
The same salary, under MSR
HDB and EC buyers are held to 30%, not 55%. That is the whole gap.
Exhibit 1. Each product at the top of the income it is allowed. An HDB flat is capped at a household income of $16,000 and a new EC at $18,000, both from 24 August 2026; a private condominium has no ceiling, so it is shown at the same $18,000 for a like-for-like read. The two MSR products land within $97,000 of each other despite the EC being allowed $2,000 a month more income — the EC’s longer 30-year tenure buys back almost exactly what its 4.0% stress rate takes away. Private, on TDSR, is nearly double either. Source: MAS TDSR, MSR and LTV rules. Illustrative arithmetic; your bank’s assessment will differ.
HDB concessionary loan, 2.6% over 25 years. MSR applies in addition to TDSR, and for HDB buyers it almost always binds first.
MSR 30%, at the 2.6% HDB concessionary rate, 25-year tenure, 75% LTV. The table stops at $16,000 because that is the household income ceiling for an HDB flat and an HDB housing loan, raised from $14,000 on 24 August 2026.
An executive condominium is a different instrument again, and it is the one people most often assume behaves like a flat. MSR still caps it at 30% — but the loan is a bank loan, so it is stress-tested at 4.0% rather than priced at 2.6%, and it runs 30 years rather than 25. The income ceiling is $18,000 from 24 August 2026, and only on sites whose tender closes on or after that date.
MSR 30%, stress-tested at 4.0%, 30-year tenure, 75% LTV, no other debt. The table stops at $18,000 because that is the household income ceiling for a new EC from a developer. A resale EC past its MOP has no income ceiling.
Which produces the result nobody expects. At its own ceiling the EC reaches $1,508,000 and the flat reaches $1,411,000 — only $97,000 apart, despite $2,000 a month more income being allowed. The longer tenure buys the EC almost exactly as much as the higher stress rate takes away.
MSR is a separate, tighter cap that applies only to HDB flats and executive condominiums bought from the developer. It limits the housing loan alone to 30% of gross monthly income — and it applies in addition to TDSR, so whichever binds first is your real limit. For HDB buyers, MSR almost always binds first.
This is deliberate policy, not an accident. The public housing market is deliberately insulated from the leverage the private market is allowed. Whether you find that protective or restrictive depends on which side of it you are standing — but it explains why $18,000 supports a $2.77 million condominium while $16,000 — the most a flat buyer may earn — supports $1.41 million.
The practical consequence for upgraders is significant. A household that comfortably serviced an HDB loan under MSR often discovers a far larger private ceiling under TDSR. That headroom is real, and it is exactly the moment to remember that permitted and prudent are different words.
What CPF actually puts in your account
$1,840 a month at the wage ceiling, and not a cent more however much you earn.
“Payable entirely from CPF” is the most quoted line in public housing, and almost nobody checks how fast the Ordinary Account actually fills. It is not a share of your salary without limit. It is a percentage of your wage up to a ceiling, and above that ceiling the tap is closed.
The Ordinary Wage ceiling rose to $8,000 on 1 January 2026, the last step of a phased increase. Contributions are computed on wage up to that figure and nothing above it, so the maximum monthly OA credit is fixed by your age band, not by your income.
Exhibit 2. One employee, earning at or above the $8,000 Ordinary Wage ceiling that took effect on 1 January 2026. The Ordinary Account share is a percentage of wage, so the ceiling caps it absolutely: a person on $8,000 and a person on $20,000 receive the same $1,840 a month. The drop after 55 is the part that catches upgraders — OA allocation falls to 12% and then to 3.5%. Source: CPF Board allocation rates for 2026.
| Employee’s age | Total contribution | Ordinary Account | Special / Retirement | MediSave | Max OA at $8,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 35 and below | 37% | 23.0% | 6.0% (SA) | 8.0% | $1,840 |
| Above 35 to 45 | 37% | 21.0% | 7.0% (SA) | 9.0% | $1,680 |
| Above 45 to 50 | 37% | 19.0% | 8.0% (SA) | 10.0% | $1,520 |
| Above 50 to 55 | 37% | 15.0% | 11.5% (SA) | 10.5% | $1,200 |
| Above 55 to 60 | 34% | 12.0% | 11.5% (RA) | 10.5% | $960 |
| Above 60 to 65 | 25% | 3.5% | 11.0% (RA) | 10.5% | $280 |
| Above 65 to 70 | 16.5% | 1.0% | 5.0% (RA) | 10.5% | $80 |
| Above 70 | 12.5% | 1.0% | 1.0% (RA) | 10.5% | $80 |
Allocation rates are percentages of wage, for wage up to the $8,000 Ordinary Wage ceiling. The final column is that OA percentage applied to $8,000 — the most one employee can receive in a month. CPF Board rates for 2026.
Now put the two ceilings side by side, because they line up exactly. The household income ceiling for an HDB flat is $16,000 from 24 August 2026. The CPF wage ceiling is $8,000 per person. So a couple at the very top of what HDB permits is also, precisely, two people at the top of what CPF will contribute on. That household generates $3,680 a month into OA between them — the theoretical maximum for any HDB-eligible household.
And it is less than their own MSR allowance. At $16,000 of household income, MSR permits a housing instalment of $4,800 a month. Borrow to that limit and the two largest OA inflows in the country still leave roughly $1,120 a month in cash to find. The household that can borrow the most is not the household whose CPF covers the most; it is the one with the widest gap between the two.
The EC buyer is further behind still. An EC household may earn $18,000, so MSR permits $5,400 a month — but CPF stops contributing at $8,000 of wage each, so the OA inflow is the same $3,680. That is a $1,720 monthly cash gap, and an EC is a bank loan, so 5% of the price has to be cash at the front as well.
The gap widens with age, and it widens sharply. A couple both in their late forties generate $3,040 a month between them, so the same maximum instalment leaves $1,760 in cash. Both in their early fifties, $2,400 and a $2,400 cash gap. Past 55 the OA allocation falls to 12% of wage and then to 3.5% — which is why a downgrader in their sixties who assumed CPF would carry the flat is often the most surprised person in the transaction.
Three things this table does not say, and all three cut the same way. The OA also has to fund the downpayment and the stamp duty before it services anything monthly, so the balance you start with is not the balance you keep. Bonus and other Additional Wages attract contributions too, but only up to an annual CPF salary ceiling of $102,000, which the Ordinary Wage ceiling alone now consumes most of. And it is not free money — of the 37 percentage points for a worker under 55, 20 come out of your own pay. What CPF does is ring-fence it: money you cannot spend on anything else, which is precisely why it is the right thing to measure a flat against.
What quietly shrinks your number
Existing debt is the most expensive thing on the page.
Exhibit 3. Buying power removed from an $18,000 household, by size of existing monthly commitment. Roughly $105,000 of loan for every $500 a month — and it comes off the top, before any ratio is applied. Nothing else on this page moves the number as hard, and retiring the debt is the only lever that is entirely yours. Source: MAS TDSR rules. Illustrative arithmetic.
Each at the top of the income it is allowed. MSR is the binding constraint on HDB and EC; existing debt is the binding constraint everywhere else.
1. Existing debt, and a car is the worst of it. A $1,500 monthly car loan removes about $419,000 of private buying power, whatever the household earns — it comes off the servicing allowance in dollars, not as a percentage. Every $500 of monthly commitment costs roughly $105,000 of loan. Nothing else on this list moves the number that hard.
2. The variable-income haircut. If a large share of your package is bonus or commission, 30% of that portion simply does not count. Two households on identical annual income can have materially different ceilings depending on how the package is structured.
3. Age and tenure. Maximum tenure is capped so the loan ends by a set age, and stretching tenure past 30 years or past age 65 drops your LTV from 75% to 55% — which raises your cash requirement dramatically. Older borrowers get squeezed from both directions.
4. It is not your first property. LTV falls to 45% on a second housing loan and 35% on a third. Combined with 20% ABSD, a second purchase needs roughly 75% of the price in cash and CPF before you have furnished it.
5. Guarantor and joint-borrower arrangements. If you have guaranteed someone else’s loan, it counts against you. This surprises people at the worst possible moment.
How to use this properly
Three moves, in order.
Clear the car loan before you get the valuation, not after. If a purchase is twelve months away and you are carrying monthly commitments, retiring them is the highest-return thing you can do — roughly $105,000 of additional borrowing capacity for every $500 a month you remove. No negotiation on price achieves that.
Get In-Principle Approval before you view anything. It is free, it takes days, and it replaces the number in this table with the number your bank will actually stand behind. Everything before IPA is arithmetic; everything after it is a fact.
Then decide what you will actually borrow, which should be less. Work backwards from the monthly payment you would be comfortable with if rates were at the stress-test level for a couple of years — because that is precisely the scenario the stress test exists to describe. If the ceiling and the comfortable number are far apart, buy the comfortable one.
Who this affects
The table gives you a ceiling. It does not give you a target.
If you own
If you are buying an HDB flat or an EC, MSR is what binds you
MSR caps the housing loan at 30% of gross monthly income and applies in addition to TDSR, so whichever is tighter is your real limit — and for HDB buyers it is almost always MSR. The most a flat buyer may earn, $16,000, reaches $1,411,000 here. At $18,000 a private buyer reaches $2,765,000.
That is deliberate policy rather than an accident: public housing is insulated from the leverage the private market is allowed. Whether that reads as protective or restrictive depends entirely on which side of it you are standing.
If you invest
If you are buying private, clear the debt before the valuation, not after
Every $500 a month of existing commitment costs roughly $105,000 of borrowing capacity, and a car loan is usually three times that. Retiring it twelve months before you buy is the highest-return thing available to you — no negotiation on price achieves the same.
Then borrow less than the ceiling. The stress test exists to describe a rate environment that can actually happen; if the permitted number and the comfortable number are far apart, buy the comfortable one.
Roughly 154× your monthly household income — minus everything you already owe.
- Private: TDSR 55%, stress-tested at 4.0%, 75% LTV, no income ceiling. An $18,000 household reaches about $2.77 million.
- HDB flat: MSR caps the housing loan at 30%, but the HDB loan is priced at 2.6% over 25 years. At its $16,000 ceiling it reaches about $1.41 million.
- EC from a developer: MSR 30% too, but a bank loan stress-tested at 4.0% over 30 years. At its $18,000 ceiling, about $1.51 million.
- The thief: existing debt. Every $500 a month costs roughly $105,000 of loan — and a car loan is usually three times that.
Want your actual number, not the table’s?
The table assumes no other debt, a standard package and a first property — three assumptions that are wrong for most people. Send us your rough position (income shape, existing commitments, whether it is your first) and we will work through what you can realistically buy, and what you should probably stop at. We would rather tell you the honest ceiling early than watch a purchase fall over at valuation.
Buying your first new launch condo: what actually happens, step by step.
5% on the day, 20% within ten weeks, and a unit chosen in twenty minutes. The full sequence before you walk into the showflat.
“I gladly paid the ABSD because it is freehold landed.” Is that actually wise?
He paid 20% ABSD on a second property and said he was glad to, because it was freehold landed. We tested the argument properly.
How to check us: every number in this piece is computed from the primary record — URA caveats to 15 Jul 2026 — not from third-party estimates or hearsay. The links below are the official policy and news record behind the contextual claims.
- URA private residential transaction data (REALIS) — the caveat record every table in this article is computed from
Dataset — TDSR 55%, MSR 30% and LTV limits of 75% / 45% / 35% are as published by MAS. The 4.0% medium-term stress rate applies to bank loans — private property and ECs bought from a developer. The HDB table is computed at the 2.6% concessionary rate over 25 years. CPF allocation rates are CPF Board’s 2026 rates, applied to the $8,000 Ordinary Wage ceiling that took effect on 1 January 2026. Income ceilings of $16,000 (flat, and an HDB housing loan) and $18,000 (new EC, on sites tendered from that date) took effect on 24 August 2026. Comparisons are drawn at each product’s own ceiling; private property has none, so it is shown at $18,000. All tables assume no other debt unless stated, and are illustrative arithmetic — your bank’s assessment will differ.
Methodology & honesty notes. TDSR of 55%, MSR of 30% and LTV limits of 75% / 45% / 35% are as published by MAS, and the 70% haircut on variable income is standard practice. The 4.0% medium-term stress rate has applied to loans from financial institutions since 30 September 2022, and it covers an executive condominium bought from a developer because that is a bank loan. The HDB column is computed at the 2.6% concessionary rate over a 25-year tenure — the rate an HDB borrower actually pays. Note that HDB also introduced a 3% floor for computing the eligible loan amount on 30 September 2022, so an HDB Flat Eligibility letter may size your loan slightly below this table; treat the HDB figures as the ceiling at the rate charged, and confirm the assessed amount with HDB. The household income ceilings of $16,000 for an HDB flat and an HDB housing loan, and $18,000 for a new EC on sites tendered from 24 August 2026, took effect on 24 August 2026. All figures are illustrative arithmetic on those parameters — loan amounts computed as the present value of the maximum permitted instalment over the stated tenure, price derived by dividing by the LTV limit, rounded to the nearest thousand. Every table assumes no other debt obligations unless expressly stated. Your bank will assess your income composition, tenure and existing commitments differently, and rules change with cooling measures. This is orientation, not a loan offer, and nothing here is financial advice — get In-Principle Approval before committing to anything. POV Realty and Farhan Adenan are not the marketing agents for any project or listing referenced, and nothing here is financial advice — it's a starting point for your own due diligence, which is exactly how we'd use it.
Farhan Adenan · CEA Registration R068636D · Senior Associate Division Director, Huttons Asia Pte Ltd (Estate Agent Licence L3008899K).