The private residential market in Singapore will be affected by expectations that interest rates will remain high for a longer period of time.

Potential buyers with large cash reserves will also be influenced by higher interest rates. Bonds and fixed deposit instruments offer better returns with higher interest rates.

Higher home loan rates also affect homebuyers who borrow money to purchase a dream house.

However, higher interest rates can be a major problem for real estate investors. Developers are faced with higher financing costs that can hurt their profitability. Those who have high gearing may also face cash flow problems.

The progressive payment plan is used by many buyers to purchase unfinished new homes. They do this because they don’t have to incur debt for two or three years, until the house is finished. Developers sold 3,233 unfinished homes in the first half of this year. This accounted for 34% of the total number of private homes in Singapore.

Consider a buyer who purchases a home worth S$1.5m with S$500,000 equity and a S$1m loan over 25 years. The total mortgage payments over 25 years are S$1.42 and S$1.63 millions, respectively, at annual interest rates of 3% and 4.25 percent.

If the annual rate of interest is 4.25 percent, the size and amount of the loan must be reduced to S$875,000 to keep the monthly payment at S$4,742.

Higher debt costs can also affect those who have a lot of cash.

If the annual price increase is 4%, then in 25 years your home will be worth S$4,000,000. The profit after accounting for the financing costs is S$2,08 million or S$1.87million, depending on whether you use annual interest rates of 3% or 4.25 percent. This is either 4.2 or 3.7 times equity.

The progressive payment plan involves an initial payment followed by subsequent payments based on construction milestones. Payments are completed at the end of construction or upon completion.

As of value date, Sep 29, the three-month average Singapore overnight rate (Sora), which is based on a compounded annual rate of 0.2 percent in early 2022 has increased to 3.7 percent. The annual interest rate of a home mortgage priced at 1% plus the three-month Sora rose from 1.2 percent in early 2022, to 4.7 percent today.

Find out more: The Hill at One-North condo

Many Singaporeans may be happy about the rising interest rates. The higher interest rates on Singapore dollar fixed deposit or Treasury bills may be helpful to a retiree living on passive income.

If the rental market is softening or an apartment has been vacant for a while, the landlord could have problems servicing his loan.

Landlords are facing a double blow: higher financing costs that reduce net income and falling property values due to higher discount rates used to value projected cash flows.

Singapore is a great place to live. There are many reasons to buy a home in Singapore.

The average quarterly growth of around 0.2 percent over the last two quarters is lower than the annual average of 2.1 percent.