Home Equity Loans in Singapore: How Much You Can Borrow Against Your Home, and What It Costs

MAS defines it by what secures it: "Mortgage equity withdrawal loans (MWLs) are loans secured against the value of the borrower's residential property" (MAS). Banks sell it as an equity loan or equity term loan. Unlike your housing loan, it isn't tied to buying a home; your bank sets any conditions on how the money is used.

The terms at a glance (as of 2026, verify on MAS):

The value is the home's current market valuation (MAS Notice 632, para 30(v)), not what you paid. That is why an equity loan suits long-held homes: the bigger the gap between today's value and what you still owe, the more room there is.

An equity loan turns a paper gain into cash, and into a new debt on the same home.

MAS states the limit in two places, and they don't read quite the same:

• MAS's explainer: "the MWL, together with amount outstanding of any loan secured on same residential property and CPF monies used" has an LTV limit of 75% if you have no housing loan on another property, and 45% if you have one or more (MAS).
• MAS Notice 632, the legal text banks must follow: the new loan plus the balance owed on the home may not exceed "LTV% x V" or "[(100% - Cash%) x V] – CPF, whichever is lower", with the LTV at 75% (45% with another housing loan) and no cash share for an equity loan (MAS Notice 632, paras 2 and 30(t)). In plain terms: the lower of 75% of the value, and the value minus the CPF you used.

The difference is how the CPF counts. On the explainer's wording, every dollar of CPF you used comes off the 75%. On the Notice's formula, the CPF only starts to bite once it is more than a quarter of the home's value ($470,000 on a $1,880,000 home), so the Notice's test always allows more. Here are three owners of a home worth the national median price of a private condo, apartment or EC, $1,880,000 across 23,718 sales in the 12 months to 30 August 2026 (PropKaki analysis of URA caveats):

Loan and CPF amounts are round illustrations, not medians. MAS sets maximums; the bank's valuation and credit checks decide what it will actually lend.

The CPF counted is what you withdrew "for payment towards the purchase price" of the home, including any CPF housing grant, but not CPF spent on stamp duty or legal fees (MAS Notice 632, para 30(e)). Your CPF Home ownership dashboard shows how much you have used (CPF). How much CPF a home can take in the first place is set by the CPF housing limit.

What you owe and what you used set the limit, not what the home is worth alone. Try your own numbers in the Property Financial Planner.

Equity is what your home is worth minus what you owe on it. PropKaki's matched resale pairs (private homes resold with an earlier recorded purchase) show how much of it comes from price alone:

PropKaki analysis of URA caveats: 14,697 matched private resale pairs sold 2025-08-31 to 2026-08-30 (condos, apartments, ECs and landed homes). Gains are gross: before stamp duties, commission, legal fees and interest. They count price only, not the loan each owner paid down, which adds to equity too.

Three readings for anyone weighing an equity loan:

• Time does the heavy lifting. Every one of the 1,220 homes held 20 years or more sold above cost, at a median gain of $1,380,045. Owners like that have real room under MAS's 75% limit.
• Recent buyers have little room. Owner A in the worked example, still owing $1,000,000 on a $1,880,000 home, can borrow $110,000 on MAS's explainer. Only 165 homes were resold within 3 years, too few to read much into.
• Price gains are not guaranteed to stay. These are sales that happened, in a rising market. An equity loan is sized on a valuation today and repaid over years in which prices can also fall.

Equity you have not sold is an estimate; the loan you take against it is exact.

PropKaki doesn't tell you whether to borrow. The trade-offs are clear enough to weigh yourself:

MAS keeps these loans on a short rein. Its own summary: "Certain other rules apply, including total debt servicing ratio in most circumstances" (MAS). And when one is refinanced, "MWLs are considered investment property loans, even when secured on an owner-occupied residential property" (MAS).

It fits best when the purpose earns or saves more than the loan costs and your income covers the repayment with room to spare. It is riskiest when it plugs a gap in monthly spending, because the debt stays after the money is gone.

Borrow against your home for something that outlasts the loan, not for something that won't.

Monthly repayments at 4% a year, on a standard amortising loan:

PropKaki's planner formula at 4% a year: the planner's indicative bank rate as of May 2026, which is also the floor MAS sets for testing an equity loan against your income (MAS). PropKaki tracks no bank packages, so this is not a quote: "The actual interest rates charged for mortgages will continue to be determined by the private financial institutions."

Two things stand out. Stretching $100,000 from 10 to 30 years halves the monthly bill but more than triples the total interest, from $21,494 to $71,870. And because the equity loan is tested at 4% or more even if the rate you get is lower, the table is also a guide to how much of your income it uses up in the TDSR test.

To see a repayment on your own amount and rate, use the Property Financial Planner.

MAS's rule is short: "The loan tenure for MWLs is capped at 35 years" (MAS). The same cap applies when you refinance an equity loan (MAS). For comparison, a new housing loan to buy a home is capped at 35 years for a private home and 30 for an HDB flat (MAS).

What the rule doesn't do is guarantee you the full term: the bank decides the tenure it will offer after its own credit assessment. Treat 35 years as the ceiling, not the offer.

A longer term buys a smaller instalment with a larger bill.

Two sets of rules decide it: MAS's, then the bank's.

1. The 50% line. "Total debt servicing ratio applies for borrowers who are individuals", but "It does not apply if the MWL amount, together with any other outstanding loan secured on the same property, is 50% or less of that property's current market valuation" (MAS). MAS's own example: an equity loan of $300,000 on a $2,000,000 home with $150,000 still owed totals 22.5% of the value, "so her TDSR does not need to be calculated".

For the three owners above:

Illustrative owners, as above. The line counts loans secured on the home only, not the CPF you used. Borrow above the figure and the TDSR test applies to the whole application, not just the excess.

2. The income test. Above the line, TDSR caps "all their debt obligations, including the loan being applied for" at 55% of gross monthly income (MAS), and an equity loan is tested at "The higher of a 4% per annum (p.a.) floor ... or the thereafter interest rate" (MAS). The debts counted include your other property loans and, in MAS's list, "motor vehicle loans", revolving credit such as credit cards, and "any hire-purchase arrangement" (MAS Notice 645).

3. The bank's own checks. MAS's figures are maximums. MAS's guarantor rule also applies to equity loans: guarantors must be "brought in as co-borrowers if they are standing guarantee for borrowers who have not met the TDSR threshold requirements" (MAS).

For how TDSR is added up line by line, see how to calculate TDSR.

MAS says it while explaining why the mortgage servicing ratio doesn't apply to equity loans: "MSR does not apply, as MWLs cannot be taken out on HDB flats and executive condominiums still within the minimum occupation period" (MAS). The MSR itself covers exactly those two groups: "an HDB flat, or an executive condominium where the minimum occupation period of the executive condominium has not expired" (MAS).

If you own an HDB flat and need cash from it, the official routes are different: selling, right-sizing, or for seniors HDB's Lease Buyback Scheme and Silver Housing Bonus.

Equity loans are a private-home tool.

People often ask for "cash-out refinancing". Under MAS's rules, the two jobs are separate:

So refinancing can cut your interest bill, but only an equity loan puts new cash in your hands. Refinance an equity loan later and the same 75% and 45% limits apply to one first taken on or after 6 July 2018 (80% and 60% to older ones), with the income test unless the total stays at 50% or less or you commit to a debt reduction plan of "at least 3% of the outstanding balance over a period of 3 years or less" (MAS Notice 632, scenarios 4B and 11B; MAS).

Either way, the bank lends on its own valuation: see do you need a valuation to refinance. More on the refinancing side: when to refinance a home loan and repricing vs refinancing.

CPF's terms for private homes list what CPF savings "cannot be used for", including "Repayment of non-housing loans (i.e. loans not taken for the purchase of your private residential property)" (CPF). An equity loan is repaid in cash.

When you sell, "the sale proceeds will be used to pay off the outstanding housing loan taken and refund the CPF amount you used for your property", and the refund is "the CPF principal amount you withdrew (P) and the accrued interest (I)" (CPF). An equity loan is secured on the same home, so it is settled from the sale too. What reaches your bank account is what is left after all of that.

So the CPF you used counts twice: against your borrowing limit today, and against your sale proceeds, with interest, tomorrow. For how the CPF refund is worked out, see how much you will get when you sell; to shrink it in advance, see the CPF voluntary housing refund.

Official rules. The equity-loan limits, tenure, income test and refinancing rules are MAS's: its mortgage equity withdrawal loan explainers (July and December 2018), its housing-loan and refinancing explainers, MAS Notice 632 (the Relevant Amount in paras 2 and 30, scenarios 4A, 4B, 11A and 11B) and MAS Notice 645, both last revised 21 August 2025. The 4% TDSR floor rate is from the joint MAS, MND and HDB release of 29 September 2022. CPF rules are CPF Board's: its Housing Scheme terms (updated 7 September 2026) and its refund page (updated 11 June 2026). All read on 26 September 2026.

Proprietary figures. Equity built is PropKaki's analysis of URA caveats: 14,697 matched private resale pairs sold 2025-08-31 to 2026-08-30, grouped by years held. The $1,880,000 is PropKaki's 12-month national median price of a private condo, apartment or EC to 30 August 2026. The three owners' limits and the repayment table are PropKaki's arithmetic under MAS's rules, shown on both MAS's explainer and its Notice; the 4% rate is PropKaki's planner rate as of May 2026, which equals MAS's TDSR floor. How we work: PropKaki methodology.

What we have not claimed: any bank's rate, fees or package (PropKaki tracks none); that any bank will lend you the maximum, or which of MAS's two wordings your bank applies; what your home will be valued at; or that an equity loan suits you. This is a practical explainer, not financial advice. Check MAS's rules and your bank's offer before you borrow.