Buying Property With “No Money Down” in Singapore: Is It Possible? (2026)

You cannot buy a Singapore home from a bank with literally no money down. MAS rules make you put in at least 5% of the price in cash for a first bank loan, and a downpayment of at least 55% of the price, with at least 25% in cash, if you already have a home loan. You can buy with little cash, using CPF savings and government grants. But that is your own money and the state’s, not a free deal. Schemes sold at seminars as “no money down” almost always move the risk onto you.

At a glance

• Bank loans: the first loan needs at least 5% cash. A second loan needs a 55% downpayment, at least 25% of the price in cash. Stamp duties and legal fees come on top.
• Low cash is possible, zero money is not. CPF savings and HDB grants can cover most of an HDB downpayment, but CPF is repaid with interest when you sell.
• Borrowing the downpayment makes the debt count against your 55% TDSR limit, and you carry the extra repayments.
• Co-investing with friends can raise your ABSD, because the highest rate among the buyers applies to the whole price.
• Overseas “seller financing” and seminar deals are where most of the scams are.

What the rules say you must pay

MAS limits how much a bank can lend against a home. If you have no outstanding housing loan, the limit is 75% of the price, with at least 5% in cash. If you have one loan, the limit is 45%, and with two or more it is 35%, and in both cases at least 25% of the price must be paid in cash. The limits fall by 20 points if the loan runs past 30 years, or past your 65th birthday.

Here is what that means for a first-time buyer and for an investor:

	First home, S$1m condo	Second home, S$1.5m condo
Maximum bank loan	S$750,000 (75%)	S$675,000 (45%)
Minimum downpayment	S$250,000, of which at least S$50,000 in cash	S$825,000
Buyer’s Stamp Duty	S$24,600	S$44,600
ABSD (Singapore Citizen)	none	S$300,000 (20%)

The figures are for a hypothetical buyer. The second-home buyer needs about S$1.17m in total before legal fees. No bank will finance stamp duty, so “100% financing” does not exist for a bank loan on a Singapore home.

Four ways people try it, and how each works in 2026

1. Borrow the downpayment

The old version of this article listed loans from friends, credit lines and borrowing against another property. Banks now count them. TDSR rules say all your monthly debt payments, including personal loans, credit lines and card balances, may not exceed 55% of your gross income. The new home loan is also tested at a 4% rate, whatever you will really pay.

Say you borrow S$50,000 to cover the 5% cash on the S$1m condo and repay it over five years. Even at 0% interest that is S$833 a month. Every dollar of that uses up TDSR room: you would need about S$1,515 more in gross monthly income (S$833 ÷ 55%) just to keep the same borrowing limit for the mortgage. Interest makes it worse. See our guide to TDSR and MSR for how banks count your debts.

The risk is simple. You now owe the bank for the home and someone else for the downpayment, and both bills arrive in the month the tenant leaves.

2. Co-invest with other people

The 2012 version of this strategy was to split the downpayment among friends. The rules have made it more costly. For joint buyers, the highest ABSD rate that applies to any buyer is charged on the whole price.

Take three friends buying a S$1.5m condo together, each putting in an equal share. Two own no property. One is a Singapore Citizen who already owns a home. The group pays 20% ABSD on the full price, which is S$300,000, or S$100,000 each, even though two of the three would pay none if they bought alone.

Other risks are legal. Joint owners usually borrow jointly, so a bank can look to any one of them for the full loan if another stops paying. If one owner dies, goes bankrupt or needs cash, the others are affected. Ask a lawyer to draw up a written agreement before you commit, including how the property is held. A group of strangers that a “mentor” introduces is a warning sign, not a feature.

3. Buy through a company to avoid the personal limits

Some sellers suggest a company as a way around personal TDSR and ABSD. It does the opposite for residential property: entities pay 65% ABSD and banks lend only 15% to non-individual borrowers. We explain why in our guide to investing through a company.

4. Overseas property with “seller financing”

Overseas deals marketed as “no money down” or “from US$5,000” are where Singapore buyers lose most. The legal system, the tenants, the currency and the title are all unfamiliar, and the seller usually controls the information. A property that needs 100% financing to look attractive is a property to avoid. A bad property, financed in full, is still a bad property. Read our guides on overseas property and how to spot overseas property scams first.

Low cash is possible: the HDB route

The legitimate low-cash route is public housing, because HDB lets you use CPF savings and grants for the downpayment. Say a first-timer Singapore Citizen couple buys a S$500,000 resale 4-room flat with an HDB loan.

Item	Amount
HDB loan, 75% of price	S$375,000
Downpayment (25%)	S$125,000
Less CPF Housing Grant for a 2- to 4-room resale flat, SC/SC household (assumed eligible)	−S$80,000
Left to pay from CPF Ordinary Account savings or cash	S$45,000
Buyer’s Stamp Duty	S$9,600

Here the couple may put in little or no cash, depending on their CPF balance. But the grant depends on household income (the ceiling for families rose to S$16,000 on 24 August 2026), on first-timer status and on the flat. Check your own figures on HDB’s grant pages. First-timer families may qualify for more, including the Enhanced CPF Housing Grant of up to S$120,000.

This is “no cash”, not “no money”. When you sell, you refund the CPF you used, plus accrued interest, to your own account. The grants are public money, and the flat comes with a minimum occupation period before you can sell. For more, see our guides to the HDB home loan and saving for your first downpayment.

Why the “no money down” pitch persists

The 2012 article made a point that still holds: look at who makes money. A seminar with 30 people paying S$3,000 each brings in S$90,000 (a hypothetical figure). If that is run monthly it comes to S$1.08m a year, before the sale of books, courses and the properties themselves. The presenter’s income depends on selling, not on the strategy working. Success stories are used the way lottery sellers use winners.

Warning signs:

• A free talk that leads to a paid course, then a “limited-time” property.
• Promised returns, buy-backs or guaranteed rents.
• A property you may buy only through the organiser’s own agent or lawyer.
• A plan you cannot explain in two sentences, including who loses if it fails.

Our guide on how to avoid get-rich-quick seminars explains how to check a pitch.

Bottom line

For a bank loan on a Singapore home, you will always need cash. Low-cash buying through CPF and grants exists, mainly for HDB flats, but it uses your own retirement savings and the state’s grants, and it still needs a stable income. Before you borrow a downpayment or pool money with strangers, work out the monthly cost at a 4% rate. Test your own numbers with the mortgage calculator. This is general information, not personal financial advice.

Sources

• Loan tenure and loan-to-value limits — MAS (updated 27 Mar 2024, checked Oct 2026)
• MSR and TDSR rules — MAS (checked Oct 2026)
• Measures to promote sustainable conditions in the property market (4% interest rate floor) — MAS, 29 Sep 2022
• Buyer’s Stamp Duty and Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty — IRAS, rates from 15 Feb 2023 and 27 Apr 2023 (checked Oct 2026)
• HDB loans guide — gov.sg (MyNiceHome), 24 Aug 2026
• HDB grants guide — gov.sg (MyNiceHome), 23 Aug 2026
• Enhanced CPF Housing Grant (Families) — HDB (checked Oct 2026)
• Increase in income ceilings and greater support for families with children — MND, 23 Aug 2026