Down payments around the world.

Ten markets, ten philosophies

Ask "how much do I need to buy a house?" in ten countries and you get ten different answers — not because the banks disagree, but because each regulator has drawn a different line between expanding home ownership and preventing the next crash. Here's what a first-time, owner-occupier buyer actually needs down in ten major markets in 2026, with typical prime mortgage rates from our country dataset:

Market	Min. down payment	Typical rate	The catch
Netherlands	0%	4%	100% LTV allowed; buyer pays ~4–6% transaction costs from savings
United Kingdom	5–10%	4.5%	95% LTV products exist; 10%+ unlocks better rates
United States	3–20%	6.5%	FHA from 3.5%, conventional 3–5%; 20% avoids PMI
Canada	5–20%	5%	5% under $500K (CMHC-insured); 20% avoids insurance
India	10–25%	8.5%	RBI LTV caps: 90% up to ₹30L, 80% above ₹75L
United Arab Emirates	20–15%	4.5%	20% expats / 15% nationals on first home under AED 5M
Japan	0–10%	1.5%	Full-financing loans common; flat 35 rewards 10%+
Germany	10–20%	3.8%	Banks prefer 20%+; buyer also pays ~10% closing costs
Singapore	25%	3.5%	75% LTV cap; 5% must be cash, rest can be CPF
Hong Kong	30%	4.15%	Relaxed to 70% LTV for most homes under HK$30M

What the extremes teach

The Netherlands at 0% works because of everything around it: recourse loans, the NHG national guarantee, mandatory amortization for tax relief, and a culture of fixed rates. Remove those supports and 100% LTV is how you get 2008. Hong Kong at 30% is the mirror image — one of the world's most volatile property markets, where the regulator uses the down payment as a shock absorber: prices can fall 25% before the bank owns the problem.

Rates tell a parallel story across all 163 markets we track: the cheapest typical rates cluster in Japan, Switzerland, Liechtenstein (from 1.5%), the dearest in Turkey, Sudan, Ghana (up to 38.5%), and the global median sits near 8%. High-rate markets are almost always high-inflation markets — lenders aren't greedier in Cairo than Copenhagen; their currency melts faster. That's also why CPI-indexed products (Chile's UF, Uruguay's UI, Iceland's verðtryggð loans) exist: they split the inflation risk so the *real* rate can stay sane.