AFTER nearly five years of renting, Samuel Low was excited to finally leave the rental game and own a home with his wife. They had been saving up for a Housing and Development Board (HDB) resale flat, and were certain the process would be fairly smooth-sailing. 

That was until they discovered that the home loan they were given was much lower than anticipated. An appeal was filed, but the couple encountered another roadblock: since Low did not own a credit card – he thought it was a “financially prudent” way of limiting his spending – he had no credit history, making it difficult for banks to assess his creditworthiness. 

The appeal eventually went through, with the bank using other factors to determine whether the couple’s home loan could be increased, but the 30-year-old believes the process took a longer time because of it. “We thought we would not be able to get the loan,” he adds.