HDB Concessionary Loan for HDB Flat:

HDB offers a concessionary interest rate housing loan to eligible purchasers. The concessionary interest rate is pegged at 0.1% point above the CPF Ordinary Account interest rate. This rate is reviewed quarterly. The amount of loan granted depends on your age, monthly income, loan ceiling and CPF balance in your Ordinary Account.  CPF Ordinary Account savings can be used to pay the full down payment.

TO NOTE:
In April 06, HDB announced a new scheme to help lower-income families where the average monthly household income over the past 2 years does not exceed $3,000. HDB will give them an Additional CPF Housing Grant (AHG) ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 in addition to the existing housing subsidy. This applies to first-time buyers only. 

Financial Institution (FI) Loans at Market Rates for HDB Flat:

If you are not eligible for the HDB concessionary loan, you can obtain market rate loans from the respective FIs of your choice. You must pay the initial 5% of the down payment in cash, and the balance from your CPF Ordinary Account.

Financial Institution Loans at Market Rates for Private Property:

Under the Approved Residential Properties Scheme, you can use your CPF Ordinary Account savings for:

If you are planning to take a housing loan, you should be aware of the Available Housing Withdrawal Limit (AHWL). This depends on the number of years left on the lease and your age at the point of purchase.  It can be calculated by:           

  Remaining lease (years) when the member is 55 years old
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ x 100
                  Lease (years) at the point of purchase

The AHWL for 2006 was 132% and will fall to 126% for 2007, for purchases made in these years. The rate from 2008 onwards will be 120%.

Take note that at some point in the future, you may have to pay cash for your entire housing loan installment. You are encouraged to calculate your finances carefully. Another point of caution is that on reaching the age of 55, all Singapore citizens are required by law to set aside the Minimum Sum which is set currently at $99,600 as of 1st July 2007 (the minimum sum would be reviewed yearly and effected on 1st July of the same year).

This Minimum Sum will increase steadily up to $120,000 by 2013. If you use too much of your CPF savings on your property, you may not meet the Minimum Sum requirement at age 55. This means that you will have no savings left in your Ordinary Account to service your loan, and will have to use cash instead.

TO NOTE:    
CPF savings can only be utilized if the property has a remaining lease of at least 30 years at the point when the housing loan is fully repaid. If the housing loan runs past the minimum 30 years balance, then CPF can not be utilized.

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If you have not utilized your CPF funds for any other property and this is the first property that you are utilizing your CPF funds for, you would be able to utilize all of your CPF savings in your Ordinary Account to finance the property purchase.

However, if you have already utilized your CPF funds for another property be it a HDB or Private property, and have no plans of selling that property, then you would be required to maintain half of the required minimum sum in your CPF account before you can utilize any balance CPF funds. The other half of the required minimum sum would then be pledged against the new property that you are purchasing.