The Lease Buyback Scheme allows elderly households to monetise their HDB flat.
According to the Housing and Development Board (HDB), the number of households that successfully applied for the Lease Buyback Scheme (LBS) more than doubled each time it was enhanced, reported Channel NewsAsia.
The scheme is intended for elderly homeowners who live in HDB flats with up to four rooms, allowing them to sell the tail end of their flat’s 99-year lease back to the HDB.
The proceeds will be added to their CPF Retirement Account, providing them with monthly payouts, and they will be allowed to continue living in the flat until the remaining lease expires.
The HDB said that only 471 households took up the scheme since its launch in 2009 and up to 2013, representing an average take-up rate of about 117 per year.
Comparatively, 494 families signed up for it over a two-year period since it was first enhanced in February 2013. On average, this translates to slightly less than 250 per annum.
But over a 12-month period since its last revision in April 2015, 541 families took up the scheme.
In the latest revision, the government tweaked the LBS to benefit more elderly citizens and make it more versatile.
The revisions include extending it to 4-room flats so that it can apply to 75 percent of elderly households, up from just 35 percent previously, and raising the income ceiling from $3,000 to $12,000.
Although the number of families that have successfully applied for the scheme increased by about two-fold, their proportion is still small, said Nicholas Mak, Executive Director of SLP International.
“When we look at over 500 households that have taken up this scheme, and we compare this islandwide, with all the HDB flats that’s available out there, the number seems to be very small. I estimate less than one percent of the eligible households have actually taken up this scheme,” he added.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
