SORA Climbs To 1.74%: When It Could Reach Your Home Loan Instalment

Singapore’s overnight interbank borrowing rate rose 11.7 basis points to 1.7446% for Friday, 6 November 2026, its highest level since July 2025, Bloomberg reported. Monday, 9 November, was a public holiday, so the Friday reading was published on Tuesday, 10 November.

The rate is the Singapore Overnight Rate Average (SORA). Many floating rate home loans are priced off it, though not off the daily figure itself. They use 1-month or 3-month compounded SORA, which moves slowly and is fixed on each loan’s own rate review date.

The jump didn’t carry into the next reading. SORA for Tuesday, 10 November eased 15.4 basis points to 1.5905%, according to MAS data published on 11 November. What isn’t known yet is whether overnight rates stay high for long enough to lift compounded SORA. If they do, the rise would reach each borrower at their next rate review.

Several rates made the news this week, and only some of them set what you pay on a home loan. Here’s how each one connects.

What Happened To SORA On 6 November 2026

Two pressures pushed the rate up, according to Bloomberg: tighter local liquidity and expectations of further US interest rate increases.

Tighter liquidity means banks have less spare cash to lend to one another overnight, so borrowing it costs more. The US side matters because the Federal Reserve raised its rate by 25 basis points in September, and markets are bracing for more.

Why would a US decision move a Singapore rate? MAS runs monetary policy through the exchange rate instead of setting an interest rate, so local borrowing costs tend to follow global rates and what markets expect of the Singapore dollar. That’s also why MAS’s decision on 14 October 2026 to keep its policy settings unchanged didn’t settle where loan rates would go.

OCBC’s strategists expect SORA to average about 1.4% by year-end, Business Today reported on 5 November, a day before the jump.

The daily figure itself comes from MAS. MAS defines SORA as the volume-weighted average rate of unsecured overnight interbank borrowing in Singapore dollars between 8am and 6.15pm. It publishes each day’s SORA by 9am on the next business day, together with the 1-month, 3-month and 6-month compounded SORA rates.

Overnight SORA vs Compounded SORA: Which One Sets Your Rate?

The 1.74% in the headlines is a single day’s figure. Compounded SORA rolls the daily readings over the past one, three or six months into one average, and floating rate home loans peg to that series. Your rate reflects a stretch of days, not the latest one.

On 6 November, the two were about 0.4 percentage points apart. Overnight SORA was 1.7446%, while 3-month compounded SORA was 1.3413%. By 10 November, the 3-month figure had edged up to just 1.3428%.

One high day is a small slice of a three-month average. For compounded SORA to rise meaningfully, overnight SORA has to stay above it for weeks, so the thing to watch is whether that gap lasts.

Also Read: How the switch from SIBOR to SORA affects your loans

When Could The Rise Reach Your Instalment?

That depends on two things: which benchmark your loan uses, and when your rate is next reviewed.

Loans Pegged To 3-Month Compounded SORA

Take OCBC’s 3M Compounded SORA package. Its home loan refinancing page says each 3-month compounded SORA rate is fixed on the rate review date and applies for the next three months. Say your review date was 1 November. Your rate is then set until the next review on 1 February 2027, and nothing SORA does before then can change it.

At that February review, your new rate will reflect roughly the three months before it, which is mostly November to January. Other banks word their terms differently, so check your own facility letter, the loan agreement your bank gave you.

Loans Pegged To 1-Month Compounded SORA

A 1-month average reacts to recent readings faster. It was already above the 3-month rate on 6 November, at 1.4280%. If overnight SORA stays high and your loan uses this benchmark, the rise shows up sooner, at a review that could be only weeks away.

Fixed Rate Packages

Still within a fixed rate period? Your instalment won’t change with SORA until that period ends. After that, the loan moves to whatever rate your contract sets, which may be a floating rate pegged to SORA.

How Much Could Your Instalment Change?

Here’s how it plays out on one loan, and these numbers are only an example. Say you owe S$600,000 with 20 years left and pay a spread of 0.80% above 3-month compounded SORA. The spread is the fixed margin your bank adds on top of the benchmark.

The first row uses the 3-month rate on 6 November. The second uses OCBC’s year-end view of about 1.4%, while the third shows what could happen if overnight SORA held at its 6 November level for three months.

On these figures, a move to 1.4% adds less than S$20 a month. The bigger risk is overnight SORA staying near 1.74% all the way to your review date, which would add about S$117.

Your spread can change too. Some packages raise it after the first two or three years, so your rate can go up even if SORA stays flat.

Three Things To Find In Your Facility Letter

Want a rough figure for your next instalment? You’ll need three details from your facility letter first.

1. Find your benchmark. Check whether the loan uses 1-month or 3-month compounded SORA, a fixed rate or another reference rate.
2. Note your spread. Look for the margin above the benchmark and whether it steps up in later years.
3. Look up your review date. Find the date your rate resets and which day’s published SORA figure the bank uses, including what happens when that date falls on a weekend or public holiday.

With those three in hand, take the latest compounded SORA for your tenor from the MAS website and add your spread. That gets you close to the rate for your next period. The figure that counts is the one in your bank’s own notice, so use your estimate to plan your budget, not to dispute a bill.

If you’re weighing up repricing or refinancing, check your lock-in period first. Leaving a package early can cost more than a few months at a slightly higher rate.

Prime Rates And Personal Loan Rates Work Differently

If you’re comparing rates, keep prime lending rates apart from SORA. The Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) collects them from member banks every Friday. Its prime lending rates table describes each one as the lowest rate a bank is prepared to lend at in Singapore dollars to its clients on an overdraft or demand basis.

The table dated 6 November lists DBS and UOB at 4.25% and OCBC at 5%. Each bank sets its own prime rate, and it isn’t the benchmark for SORA home loans. ABS overwrites the table every week, so check the date at the top before you rely on a figure.

Personal loan rates work differently again. Your rate follows your own loan contract, not the day’s SORA figure. For loans from licensed moneylenders, the Ministry of Law caps interest at 4% a month, whatever your income and whether the loan is secured or unsecured. A SORA rise doesn’t change that cap.

When you compare loan offers, look at the effective interest rate. It includes fees and how repayments reduce your balance, so it gives a fairer comparison than the headline rate alone.

Also Read: The interest rates and fees a licensed moneylender can legally charge

What To Watch Over The Next Few Weeks

Overnight SORA has already come off its 6 November high, so the coming weeks of readings matter more than any single day. Three things will show whether the rise reaches home loans.

• Daily SORA against 3-month compounded SORA. If the daily rate keeps sitting well above the compounded rate, the compounded rate will keep rising.
• 3-month compounded SORA against about 1.4%. That’s roughly where OCBC’s strategists expect SORA to average by year-end.
• Your bank’s notice before your review date. It gives your actual rate and instalment for the next period.

If your review is months away, there’s time to dig out your facility letter and run the numbers before anything changes.

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