DMG & Partners said United Overseas Bank and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp may benefit from new rules to cool Singapore’s property market by capping residential loan tenures at 35 years.

Although the new rules will mean slower mortgage growth and limit the ability of some property owners to refinance, banks that recorded stronger housing loan growth in the last 2 years are in a better position to keep their customers without having to be aggressive on interest rates.

Therefore, OCBC and UOB are expected to benefit as both posted a 2-year housing loan growth of about 19% a year on average, more than double of DBS Group Holdings’ 8%.

By 10:07 a.m., shares of DBS were down 1.2% at $14.28, while UOB dropped 1.1% at S$19.63 and OCBC fell 0.7% to $9.42.

UOB, with the highest percentage exposure to housing loans, is expected to gain the most, DMG said, maintaining its ‘buy’ rating on the bank with a target price of $21.40.