Considerations when using CPF to buy property

Before buying a home, consider how it will impact your lifestyle and finances over time. To be prudent, keep your total debt servicing ratio and your monthly housing instalment within 55% and 25% of your gross monthly income respectively. Factors like household size, mortgage repayment ability and your retirement plan should also be considered. 

Eligibility

Check with HDB

Maximum loan amount

Up to 80% of purchase price

Interest rate

Fixed rate, pegged at 0.1% above CPF OA interest rate

Capital repayment

HDB allows capital repayment

Adjustment to monthly repayment amount

HDB allows adjustments

Eligibility

Check with bank

Maximum loan amount

Up to 75% of purchase price, subject to terms and conditions

Interest rate

Differs across banks

Capital repayment

Subject to financier’s approval and terms and conditions

Adjustment to monthly repayment amount

Subject to financier’s approval and terms and conditions

Before you decide whether to use cash or your OA savings to buy a property, it is important to plan with your retirement needs in mind. Once you have used more of your OA savings for your property, keep in mind that you’ll have less CPF savings left for retirement.

As you begin planning for your new home, start by calculating the amount of OA savings you can use for your property purchase. Use the CPF housing usage calculator to estimate the amount of OA savings you can use. 

If you have an existing property, log in to Home ownership dashboard to check the amount used for your property and how much more you can use before reaching the usage limits where applicable.

We recommend you retain $20,000 in your OA as it can act as an emergency fund, while earning a risk-free interest of up to 3.5%*.

In the case of any unexpected scenarios such as a sudden loss of income, you can use it to continue paying for your monthly instalments, minimising disruptions to your housing loan payments and providing you with peace of mind. OA savings not utilised can boost your retirement payouts in future.

*Members will earn an extra interest of 1% per annum on the first $60,000 of combined CPF balances (capped at $20,000 for OA). Extra interest earned from OA balances will go into your SA.