(Last Updated: 3 Mar, 2025)

8 Benefits Of DBS Home Loan

DBS bank holds the titles of “World’s Best Bank” (and equivalent) concurrently by Euromoney, The Banker and Global Finance.  More importantly, it has also won multiple accolades of the “World’s Best Digital Bank” and being recognised widely for its push into digital solutions and frontiers in recent years.  This bodes well as the bank is strongly positioned to take on challenges and disruptions brought about by fintechs and global tech giants muscling into the realms of financial services.

Besides being present in 18 markets globally including six priority markets in Asia – Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan, China and India, DBS also boasts of the largest network of branches in Singapore and the biggest pool of Sing dollar funds.  This is apparent with the acquisition of the POSB franchise in 1998 for S$1.6b. POSB (Post Office Savings Bank) was a household brand beloved by many generations of older Singaporeans who opened their first savings account with the bank as a kid.

The fact that many Singaporeans credit their salary to a DBS/POSB bank account gives DBS a strategic edge in the marketing of its suite of retail products and services – which it does to great success especially for Singapore mortgages!  The DBS Multiplier Account (made famous by the “rabbit” advertisements) is marketed strongly as a unique feature of DBS home loans.  See details below. 

Salary crediting allows DBS access to the the biggest pool of Sing dollar deposits. That gives it an unrivalled position amongst the three local banks to offer competitive longer term 3-year fixed rate home loans, if it so wishes.  DBS also champion many product innovations – it pioneered the use of fixed deposit rates (called Fixed Deposit Home Rate or FHR) to price its mortgages, probably the first-of-its-kind in the world. The bank has marketed FHR to be a more stable and reliable mortgage loan peg, less susceptible to extreme swings in the interest rate cycle – as fixed deposit rates are known to stay low for long periods in Singapore.

Apart from Singapore residential properties financing, we also broker DBS’s property financing packages for:

• Commercial property loan under personal name
• Commercial property loan under company name

Before we go on, you may check all the latest rates in the market here:

DBS Home Loan Packages

(For Completed Residential Property)

(NOTE: Rates may change from time to time. There are “deviated rates” for DBS home loan rates lower than what you see here but we are unable to publish. Contact us for details or apply here.)

	FIXED HOME LOAN RATE	FIXED HOME LOAN RATE
Mortgage Loan Peg	3M SORA (Compounded)	3M SORA (Compounded)
Year 1	2.53 (Fixed)	2.50 (Fixed)
Year 2	2.53 (Fixed)	2.50 (Fixed)
Year 3	3M SORA + 1.00	3M SORA +1.00
Year 4	3M SORA + 1.00	3M SORA +1.00
Year 5	3M SORA + 1.00	3M SORA +1.00
Year 6 (thereafter)	3M SORA + 1.00	3M SORA +1.00
Lock-in	2 years	2 years
Minimum Loan	$800,000	$800,000
Remarks	Free conversion after 12M	Switch to floating 3M SORA + 0.35/0.40 anytime during lock; 100% penalty waiver on sale
Cash Rebate (refinancing only)	$2,300 for >$500k $3,000 for >$1m $3,400 for >$1.5m	$2,300 for >$500k $3,000 for >$1m $3,400 for >$1.5m

Which local bank’s home loans is the best right now?

Many in the market are familiar with the three local banks’ offerings as collectively they command more than 80% of the mortgage market in Singapore. However, other than comparing the headline rates, not all are familiar with the mortgage loan features and there are interesting differences between the various banks. Homeowners should look more into such features in order to benefit more from a free market.

In fact, in recent years with high mortgage rates, features like a free conversion especially whilst still within the lock-in period, has become quite paramount in how much you can save over time. Other pertinent features like keeping the flexibility to sell without any penalty during the commitment period of the loan is also well-loved by the market.

We like to present here the lesser known benefits of why you might want to consider applying for DBS home loans.

Why DBS Home Loans? 8 Benefits..

Fast approval	DBS, being one of the most digitalised banks in Singapore, will not be second to others in terms of approval turnaround time.  As long as all documents are complete. Approvals can be just as fast and most applications can be approved within the same day or two.
Highest cash rebate	Similar to OCBC, DBS offers cash rebate and not legal subsidy for refinancing cases. This is important as you could effectively put “extra cash” in your pocket after refinancing is completed.  This happens as you could opt to pay the legal fee of $1,800 net (get even lower rates from our partner law firms) for refinancing of private properties from your CPF!  Doing that allows you to keep the entire cash rebate of $2,000 (or more) which will be credited into your DBS account later.  In the case of legal subsidy for some other banks, the law firm bills the bank and this option of paying via CPF will not be available. What’s more, DBS is one of the most generous when it comes to cash rebate for private property refinancing – loans above $1m gets $2,500 cash rebate in total instead of the usual $2,000 from most other banks. This effectively covers the valuation fees as well and make DBS home loans a “zero-cost” option for those looking to refinance over $1m in loan.
Multiplier Account	DBS is one of few banks that bundle home loans as one of the categories under its Multiplier Account mechanics where one needs to transact simply more than a total combined value of $5,000 in 3 categories (Salary/dividend crediting OR enrol SGFinDex + home loan instalment + monthly credit card spend) to earn higher deposit interest than normal (subject to change) on the first $50,000 in the account. Do check the bank’s website. This is much higher than sourcing for the highest fixed deposit rate in town, which requires you to commit the funds for a period of time/ In fact, it is possible to earn higher interest on the next $50,000 but it requires buying insurance products or doing investments with the bank, not a low-hanging fruit for most. So, we shall skip that part. As most Singaporeans already credit salary to a DBS account, taking a DBS home loan simply means one just need to shift spending from other banks to DBS credit cards to qualify for the higher interest.  In fact, with typical home loan instalments in the range of $3,000-5,000, a DBS home loan makes it a possibility for some to hit the next tier ($15,000 transaction value) of deposit interests. DBS Multiplier Account does not allow for joint account under husband and wife.  Please check the bank’s website for details.
FHR mortgage peg	In 2014, DBS pioneered pegging of home loan rates to fixed deposit rates, called Fixed Deposit Home Rate or FHR in short, which the bank publishes on its website daily. Soon, other banks followed suit with their own versions of FHR going by different names. FHR, being deposit rates, are in the open and more transparent than traditional BOARD rates.  No one outside the bank could track the historical movements of BOARD rates over time.  The bank can choose to increase the BOARD rate for one segment of customers in its portfolio, but hold the same BOARD rate constant for other segments. Another thing we like about FHR is how it is singular in nature.  The bank may have different tranches of FHR like FHR6 (based on 6-month fixed deposit tenor), FHR24, FHR8, and so on, but there is only one such rate for each FHR tranche.  If DBS decides to hike FHR6, it will be applied across the board to both new and existing customers.  This makes it more transparent than BOARD rates. FHR is also a more stable mortgage peg as it lags behind any movements in SORA.  Due to this laggard effect and the generally smaller swings, we recommend it in periods when rates are going up. DBS one of few banks still offering a FHR home loan peg at the moment after more than a decade.
Fixed rates	As we have explained earlier, DBS has a competitive advantage with access to the millions of DBS/POSB accounts when it comes to funding costs for its Sing dollar lending business. As such, the bank is able to consistently lead the market in offering the most competitive fixed rate home loans especially for 3-year or longer fixed term.  This becomes important in periods when interest cycles are on an upswing. Knowing this competitive advantage, going with DBS also gives you peace of mind that there will still be competitively-priced fixed rates for repricing later when your lock-in ends.
Free conversion	Free conversion refers to repricing without being charged a conversion fee (typically $500 for local banks, albeit most banks waive that nowadays due to stiff competition). Depending on the packages, DBS has been one of the more aggressive banks offering free conversions during lock-in periods, even for fixed rate home loans.  Again, this is likely due to its low-cost base compared to the other banks.  From time to time, the bank markets the flexibility of such loans where homeowners can fix their monthly repayment yet retain the option to convert to any other prevailing DBS home loan package, 12 months into a 2-year or 3-year lock-in period.
Waiver due to sale	DBS also offers a complete 100% waiver of the 1.50% lock-in penalty of 1.50% (of the loan redeemed), if redemption is due to a sale of property within the lock-in period.   This is a feature that is offered on selected packages from time to time. Check with our strategists for more details.
DBS Treasures	DBS does offer slightly differentiated pricing for its preferred banking or DBS Treasures customers. However, these tend to be on floating rate home loans rather than fixed, where typically the bank used to price 3 basis points (0.03%) off the prevailing SORA spread.
Online acceptance	DBS bankers will a link to applicants who can then login to scrutinise loan contract terms from the comforts of their home, before putting their digital signatures on it for acceptance.  A copy of the digitally-signed LO will then be sent to the applicant shortly after.

Like to compare home loan packages across all 12 major banks in Singapore?

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Disclaimer: MortgageWise Pte Ltd is not in the business of providing financial advice nor are we licensed or regulated by MAS under the Financial Advisory Act (FAA) in Singapore. All information presented are opinions and any representations given, whether by way of example, illustration or otherwise, are purely portfolio allocation advice and not recommendations or inducements to buy, sell or hold any particular investment product or class of investment product.  All opinions are generic in nature and are not tailored to the particular circumstances of any reader.  Seek advice from a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decision.

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