Yes and no. I do not design the banks' products so I would not know how they got around the BNM ruling, but here is what I know:
1. When you apply for a loan, the bank would need to check your income and your commitment levels, including the commitment of the new loan that you are applying for. Each bank has a different number for the maximum amount of your nett income that can be used as part of your loan repayment commitments, which is called the DSR limit.
2. When you apply for a refinancing, the loan will be divided into 2 portions:
a) Refinancing (which is the outstanding balance of the mortgage you want to refinance)
b) Cash-out (which is whatever amount above the outstanding balance) which you will receive as cash for you to spend on.
3. When you apply for a refinancing with a cash out, the bank will do 2 types of calculations:
a) Calculation to determine if you will burst your DSR limit or not.
b) Calculation for the actual monthly installment
4. For
"Refinancing (which is the outstanding balance of the mortgage you want to refinance)", the calculation for the monthly commitment will based on a maximum of 35 years (or until you are 70) tenure. As such, the monthly commitment would be low.
For
Cash-out (which is whatever amount above the outstanding balance), the calculation for the monthly commitment will based on a maximum of 10 years. As such, the commitment would be rather high. A lot of people get their loans rejected because of this BNM ruling
5. HOWEVER. If you do get your loan approved, OCBC and HLBB would allow the monthly installment (for both the refinancing and cash-out portions) to be repaid in 35 years; as such, your installment would still be low
Conclusion: The 10-year rule was introduced to lower household debt by preventing borrowers from continuously extend their loan repayment period; however, those who are not affected by such actions due to much higher nett-income-vs-commitment would be allowed to do so.
I'm sorry if this is rather confusing, do ask if you need more clarifications!!!
p/s I will on break for half-a-day starting from 11am today. You all have a good discussion and I will get back to answer any open questions.
I understand what you meant but does BNM spell out (clearly) that sensitizing the repayment capacity (for cash out portion) using 10 yrs tenure scenario but actual tenure can be longer (provided the DSR remain satisfactory under the 10-yrs tenure scenario)?