Mortgage Recommender

The Mortgage Wizard is a 4-step guided purchase-cost calculator that walks you through every significant cost and constraint in a Singapore property purchase in sequence, so nothing is missed. Step 1 (Profile) captures your residency status (SC / PR / Foreigner), first-time buyer status, and number of existing properties — the three variables that determine your ABSD rate and LTV limit. Step 2 (Property) takes the property price, type (private / HDB / EC), and whether it is new launch or resale. Step 3 (Loan) enters the loan amount, interest rate, and tenure. Step 4 (Summary) presents a full breakdown: BSD, ABSD, legal fees, stamp duty total, required cash and CPF split, monthly mortgage, TDSR ratio, and projected total interest cost over the full tenure.

Unlike the standalone Mortgage Calculator (which focuses on monthly repayments and amortisation), the Mortgage Wizard is designed as an end-to-end purchase cost checklist — ensuring first-time and second-time buyers understand every dollar they need before signing an Option to Purchase. The wizard is available on ShiokNest under the Advisor tab. It runs entirely in your browser, updates each summary step as you proceed, and links directly to the individual calculators for any component you want to model in more detail.

The most common financial mistake in Singapore property is signing an Option to Purchase without a complete picture of all upfront costs — and discovering shortfalls during the 2–3 week exercise window. BSD, ABSD, legal fees, valuation costs, and the required cash/CPF split at completion are all deterministic and calculable before you sign anything. Yet a significant number of buyers discover after signing that their ABSD bill (which must be paid in cash within 14 days) exceeds the cash they have set aside, or that their CPF balance is insufficient to cover the required 5% OTP cash-over-valuation. The Mortgage Wizard prevents this by forcing all five cost components onto a single screen before you commit.

The single most important output of the wizard is the required cash at completion. For a Singaporean citizen buying a $1.5M private property with 75% LTV and no ABSD: the 5% OTP fee ($75,000) must be in cash; the remaining 20% of the 25% downpayment ($300,000 minus $75,000 = $225,000) can be cash or CPF; BSD of $44,600 can be paid from CPF; legal fees of ~$4,000 are in cash. Total cash needed before loan drawdown: approximately $83,000. A buyer who has $200,000 in CPF OA but only $70,000 in liquid cash would fail at the OTP stage. The wizard surfaces this exact calculation in 60 seconds.

The wizard is also critical for buyers evaluating a second property purchase. The ABSD profile changes entirely when you own one property — a Singaporean citizen paying 20% ABSD on a $1.8M investment property owes $360,000 in additional stamp duty, which must be in cash and paid within 14 days of the S&P Agreement. Most buyers know the ABSD rate exists; many underestimate how large the cash requirement is in absolute dollar terms. The wizard makes this concrete at Step 1, before you progress to considering the property, so you know from the outset whether the purchase is cash-feasible at your target price point.

Finally, the tenure and monthly mortgage step is where many buyers discover their TDSR constraint is binding. A household earning $12,000/month has a TDSR limit of $6,600/month in total debt payments (55%). If they already have a $1,200/month car loan and $300/month personal loan, only $5,100/month remains for mortgage servicing — which at 3.5% over 25 years supports a loan of approximately $924,000, not $1,000,000. This $76,000 difference changes which properties are on the shortlist. Use the Mortgage Wizard to confirm your exact loan ceiling before shortlisting, then use the Loan Comparison Calculator to find the best package once you have a property in mind.