Eligibility, limits & regulatory rules

Total debt servicing ratio (TDSR)

The Singapore-wide rule that caps how much of your income can go to debt repayments.

• For property loans, TDSR is currently capped at 55% of gross monthly income.

• TDSR includes all your monthly debt: mortgage, car, student, credit cards, personal loans, etc.

• Even if you’re not taking a home loan now, heavy personal-loan use can reduce your future property-loan capacity.

Debt-to-income ratio (DTI)

Your total monthly debt repayments divided by your monthly income, usually expressed as a percentage.

• Similar to TDSR in concept but used more generically by banks for internal risk assessment.

• A higher DTI means lower headroom for new borrowing.

Unsecured credit limit / MAS 12× income rule

The regulatory ceiling on how much unsecured debt you can have across all financial institutions.

• MAS limits interest-bearing unsecured debt (credit cards, credit lines, personal loans) to 12× your monthly income industry-wide.

• If you breach this, banks must freeze further unsecured credit until you reduce your balances.

Credit score / credit bureau report (CBS/Credit Bureau Singapore)

A numeric summary of how risky you are as a borrower, based on your past behaviour.

• Factors include payment history, utilisation, length of credit history and number of recent enquiries.

• Multiple applications in a short time can hurt your score, even if you don’t take up every loan.

• Banks in Singapore commonly use CBS reports plus internal scorecards.

Minimum income requirement (citizen/PR/foreigner)

The lowest income level you must meet to qualify for a specific loan product.

• Banks and financial institutions set different income thresholds for Singaporeans/PRs vs. foreigners.

• For licensed loan providers, MinLaw also imposes caps on how much you can borrow based on your annual income.