Tag Archives: Property Loans

Lenders try new ways to woo home buyers

Posted on 17 Oct 2009 | Comments Off on Lenders try new ways to woo home buyers

They offer free air miles, vouchers, extra services and new products

With an active property market, banks are pulling out all the stops to attract buyers to take home loans from them. — ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

THE surge in home sales is prompting two lenders to try new marketing approaches to snare a share of the fiercely competitive mortgage market.

Tried-and-tested strategies like launching more innovative mortgage products and offering better interest rates are now standard procedures.

But some lenders are also trying more radical ways to lure borrowers – like product giveaways, snazzy marketing and that extra bit of service.

‘Banks can cut rates only up to a certain level. They have to come up with more innovative ways to attract customers,’ said Ngee Ann Polytechnic real estate lecturer Nicholas Mak. Continue reading →

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Making sense of home loans

Posted on 24 Sep 2009 | Comments Off on Making sense of home loans

We survey what’s on offer by major banks and discuss key features of the packages. By FELDA CHAY and SIOW LI SEN

WITH the recent home buying spree, one pertinent issue is how to pick the best home loan from among the dozens on the market. What with all the different plans and reams of fine print to go through, the search for the right home loan can often be a headache. Here, online websites can be a boon by making comparison of features easier. Check out smartloans.sg which has details of home loan packages from eight banks – HSBC, Standard Chartered, Rashid Hussein Bank (RHB), Maybank, UOB, OCBC, POSB and DBS.

The fixed rate package from Stanchart and floating rate package from HSBC are currently the most popular among users of the website. And it is constantly trying to add new banks to the list, with talks now ongoing with Citibank Singapore. Smartloans.sg’s chief executive Vinod Nair says he expects the bank’s packages to be listed on the website soon.

While the large variety of loan schemes available may leave many house buyers confused, Mr Nair says that there are a few things to keep in mind. ‘It depends on why you are buying the property. If you are buying it for investment purposes, you should take the floating packages because there are usually no lock-ins for floating rate packages. Also, they are usually pegged to rates like Singapore Interbank Offered Rate (Sibor), which should remain fairly low in the next one to two years,’ he says. Continue reading →

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