By Terence Lim
I have always thought that POSB is the people’s bank, until today.
I went down to your Clementi branch to apply for a 100k home loan for a new 2 room HDB BTO.
The RM referred me to your mortgage specialist who called rather promptly an hour later. It was then that she told me DBS does not do 2-room HDB loans. I assume that this is the case for all local banks.
I always wonder why the poor gets poorer while the rich gets exponentially richer in this Ponzi fiat monetary system. If the poor is forced to apply for a 2.6% HDB loan and cannot even arbitrage the interest rate differential between DBS’s ~1.8% home loan and CPFOA’s 2.5% (3.5% for 1st $20,000), they are potentially losing a few thousand bucks over the tenure of the loan.
While a few thousand bucks is chump change to our dear Singapore leaders and the management at DBS, it is plenty to a Singapore Citizen who is earning a mere 2% of Piyush Gupta (DBS’s CEO)’s annual salary.
I hope the government of Singapore and POSB can get its act together and do more for its citizens.
As an aside, I received exactly $0 in subsidy from the HDB because I was out of a job the year before my application. HDB requires all applicants to be working at least 1 year before application, to receive some form of subsidy. My MP’s letter to HDB did not help in the least even though I was already employed for a pittance of a pay when I applied for the flat.

Isn’t the poor getting poorer in Singapore?
TOC has written to DBS on this matter and will update this letter with their response when they reply. View here for the POSB HDB Loan details
DBS is in the midst of contacting the author of the letter and will respond as soon as possible with an official response.
Update – A spokesperson from DBS replied to TOC,

“We would like to thank Mr. Terence Lim for his feedback and we apologise for his experience.
We have since contacted him to clarify on his concerns. At DBS, we offer various mortgage options for homeowners to meet their financing needs.
Referring specifically to Mr. Lim’s case, we wish to assure him that we do offer our POSB HDB Loan for different flat sizes, subject to credit assessments.”

Letter sent to Mr Piyush Gupta, DBS’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Heng Swee Keat, Minister of Finance (likely to be seen by the secretary instead due to Mr Heng’s current condition) and Mr Lawrence Wong, Minister of National Development.

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