Bridging Loans for Singapore's Bonus Earners: When TDSR Penalises Variable Pay

A managing director at a Singapore investment bank earns $900,000 a year. Her fixed base is $250,000; the rest arrives in an annual bonus. She has found a condominium in the $5M range, has the assets to support it, and plans to refinance into a conventional mortgage once the purchase completes. When she approaches her bank, the offer that comes back is well short of what she needs.

The problem is not her wealth. It is her pay structure. Under Singapore's TDSR framework, banks must apply a mandatory haircut to variable income (bonuses, commissions, and profit share) before including it in the borrowing capacity calculation. On a conservative read, a $900,000 package heavily weighted towards bonus can be assessed on far less than the total figure suggests. The property she can clearly afford falls outside what the income test permits.

Bridging loans work differently. Rikvin Capital underwrites on the asset and the exit, not on what a bank's income model says a borrower qualifies for.

How the TDSR Haircut Works Against Variable-Pay Borrowers

The TDSR framework caps total monthly debt obligations at 55% of a borrower's gross monthly income. For a salary earner, the calculation is clean. For a bonus earner, the mechanics are punishing in a specific and counterintuitive way.

MAS rules require banks to apply a 30% haircut to variable income (bonuses, commissions, profit-sharing, and incentive pay) before it enters the TDSR calculation. Some institutions apply a two-year average, require a consistent track record, or decline to count variable income where employment is recent. The result is that two borrowers with identical total packages can receive very different assessments depending on which bank they approach.

Consider a senior technology director on a $700,000 package: $180,000 fixed base and $520,000 in variable compensation. After the 30% haircut, the TDSR-eligible variable income falls to $364,000. On a conservative bank read that excludes it altogether, qualifying income drops to $180,000. At that level, the monthly TDSR ceiling is roughly $8,250. A $4M property purchase, even at a modest LTV, can easily exceed that figure.

This is not a fringe scenario. It is the ordinary position for a sizeable slice of Singapore's senior professional class. This includes private bankers, fund managers, senior lawyers, tech executives on RSU-heavy packages, and sales professionals on commission-weighted structures.

What Rikvin Assesses Instead

Rikvin Capital is a direct private lender, not a bank. As an excluded moneylender under Singapore's Moneylenders Act, Rikvin is not subject to the TDSR framework and lends only to accredited investors and corporates. The underwriting focuses on three things: the property, the LTV, and the exit.

The exit is the central question. For a bonus earner, credible exits tend to be straightforward: a confirmed property sale, a refinance once the bank's track record requirement for variable income is satisfied, RSUs vesting on a known date, or a business distribution. Our lending process does not require two years of payslips before issuing a term sheet. If the exit is real and the asset holds, the bank's TDSR assessment plays no part in the decision.

Bridging loans operate on terms from 3 to 24 months, with loan sizes from $1M to $100M and LTV up to 70% on Singapore property. Term sheets are typically issued within 24 hours; drawdown generally completes in two to three weeks, which sits comfortably within a standard Option to Purchase timeline. The condominium bridging loan is the core product for apartment purchases; landed and GCB-grade assets have their own dedicated facilities. If an OTP deadline is close, speak to our team before it lapses.

When a Bridge Is the Right Call, and When It Is Not

A bridge suits this situation when three conditions line up: the TDSR gap is real and temporary, the exit is credible on a defined timeline, and the property justifies the premium in cost over a bank mortgage.

If you are buying now and the bank will refinance once your bonus track record is auditable (say, 12 to 18 months out), a bridge funds the purchase and exits cleanly when the bank steps in. If a property sale is completing in eight weeks, the exit is already built in. These are the uses the structure is designed for. Explore the full range of bridging loan products if you are still working out which facility matches your asset type.

It is not the right tool where the exit is speculative. Bridging rates are higher than conventional mortgage rates. That is the premium for speed and the absence of an income test. A borrower who cannot point to a clear, time-bound exit is extending risk rather than resolving it. The bridge loan without TDSR guide covers the broader case for asset-backed lending when income tests fail; the variable-pay scenario is a specific and common instance of the same logic.

Related: how we delivered $25M in bridge funding over a weekend, a case where the borrower's position was strong but the timeline made conventional finance impossible.

A bonus-weighted compensation structure is not a credit risk. It is a timing problem that bridging finance is designed to solve.