Insights
Published 16 September 2026 · lending practice and rates as at September 2026.
A commercial purchase is funded from cash and a bank facility, and the ceiling is set by the lender rather than by regulation. Indicatively, a business buying a unit to occupy can borrow up to around 90%; a buyer holding the unit as an investment, up to around 80%. The shape of the drawdown matters as much as the ceiling, because a building under construction is paid for in stages.
Nothing in the rules fixes a maximum loan-to-value for a purchase at Cecil Place. Each bank sets its own, and the strongest terms go to an operating business that will occupy and maintain the premises it is financing — the lender is, in effect, taking a view on the business as well as on the asset. A unit bought to let is assessed a notch more conservatively, and a borrower already carrying other property debt more conservatively again. The indicative bands are tabulated on the commercial loan page.
The opening 20% of the price falls due across the eight-week Sale & Purchase period, before the bank disburses anything. At 70% or 80% loan-to-value, that whole 20% is the buyer’s. At 90%, the bank funds part of it, drawing the excess at completion of the sale once the mortgage is in place. On a $1,500,000 illustration at 2.10% over 25 years, the cash needed in the first eight weeks is about $375,600 at 70% or 80%, and about $225,600 at 90% — the difference being what the bank picks up, not a change in what is owed. The commercial purchase calculator reproduces all three side by side.
After the option period, the bank funds each construction instalment as it is certified against the payment schedule. Interest is charged only on what has been drawn, so the monthly cost climbs stage by stage and reaches the full repayment only once the facility is fully drawn. Budgeting for the full instalment from day one overstates the early years; budgeting for the early years understates the later ones. The calculator prints both the stage-by-stage interest and the full repayment once drawn.
An individual borrower is assessed under the Total Debt Servicing Ratio, which caps all monthly debt obligations at 55% of assessed income — and that includes a sole proprietor or an individual setting up a company purely to hold the unit. A company borrower is assessed on its own financials: turnover, profitability, cash flow and existing facilities, usually with personal guarantees from the directors. Tenure commonly runs 25 to 30 years. CPF savings cannot be applied to a commercial property, so the equity is cash.
Lenders shorten tenure and trim loan-to-value as a lease runs down, because the security amortises with it. Cecil Place is freehold, so that pressure never enters the assessment — at purchase, and again at each refinancing over the life of the holding. It is a quieter advantage than the scarcity argument set out in the insight on freehold strata scarcity, but it is the one a treasurer notices.
Three costs stay in cash whatever the loan-to-value: the 9% GST on each instalment, Buyer’s Stamp Duty — $494,600 on a $10,500,000 unit — and the legal fee. Fitting-out, valuation and bank processing charges sit outside as well. Run a specific figure through the purchase calculator, review current availability on the balance units chart, and the Sales Concierge can map the schedule against a lender’s offer at the sales gallery.