Lease Buyback Scheme

Lease Buyback Scheme (LBS) is a monetisation option introduced by Singapore to help elderly households in three-room or smaller flats unlock their housing equity to meet their retirement needs. It was announced by Singapore’s Minister for National Development, Mah Bow Tan, in Parliament on 6 Feb 2009, and the Housing and Development Board (HDB) has started accepting applications for LBS from 1 Mar 2009.

The scheme underwent a review, following Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance and Manpower, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam announcement on 17 Feb 2012. The enhanced LBS was announced on 27 December 2012, under which, eligible elderly households will receive a $20,000 LBS bonus when they sell the tail-end lease of their 3-room or smaller flats to HDB and use their net proceeds to top up their CPF Retirement Account (RAs) to the specified top-up requirements.

This is in addition to the value of the housing equity unlocked from the shorter lease.

The household will receive the full bonus so long as the total top-up to their RAs is $60,000 or more. A maximum of $100,000 of the excess proceeds can be withdrawn in cash, after topping up the RAs to the specified requirements. Any amount in excess of $100,000 will be used to help the person with the lower RA balance meet the prevailing Minimum Sum. They will be able to use their full RA savings to buy a CPF LIFE plan if they have at least $40,000 (if below age 65) or $60,000 (if aged 65 to 79) in their RA after the top-up. This will enable the elderly couple to have a monthly stream of income for life.