How it Works

If your household is eligible for the Lease Buyback Scheme (LBS), you will be able to:

• Sell the tail-end lease of your 3-room or smaller flat, or 4-room flat, or 5-room or bigger flat to HDB and receive up to $30,000 or $15,000, or $7,500 of LBS bonus, respectively
• Use the net proceeds to top up your CPF Retirement Account (RA) to the specified requirements as shown:

For households with 1 owner, he or she will have to use the proceeds to top up the RA to the current age-adjusted Full Retirement Sum (FRS).

For households with 2 or more owners, each owner will have to use his/ her share of the proceeds to top up his/ her RA to the current age-adjusted Basic Retirement Sum (BRS).

For applications received from 1 Jan 2020

Determining the LBS bonus

Your household will receive the full bonus as long as the total top-up to the flat owners’ RA is $60,000 or more. If you are unable to do so, you will receive a pro-rated bonus of: 

• $1 for every $2 CPF top-up for 3-room or smaller flats; or
• $1 for every $4 CPF top-up for 4-room flats; or
• $1 for every $8 CPF top-up for 5-room flats or bigger flats.

Amounts in excess

After you have topped up the RA to the specified requirements shown above, you may retain the proceeds in cash, up to a maximum of $100,000 per household. If there is any remaining proceeds (after the top-up and setting aside of $100,000 cash), owners will have to use their share of the remaining proceeds to further top up their respective RAs to the current FRS, before they can retain any balance in cash as well.

CPF LIFE

Your full RA savings will be used to buy a CPF LIFE plan if you have at least $60,000 in your RA after the top-up. You will not be eligible to join CPF LIFE if you are aged 80 and above.

Options for lease period

Your household will have the flexibility to choose the length of lease to be retained, based on the age of the youngest owner. The duration of the lease retained determines the amount of net proceeds unlocked.

Illustrating an example

Joint Singapore Citizen (SC) owners aged 65 years old

Assumptions:

• 5-room flat held under joint tenancy
• No outstanding loan
• Balance lease: 65 years
• Market value: $520,000
• Choose to keep a 30-year lease
• Sell the tail-end 35-year lease to HDB for $219,300

A couple, both 65 years old, are joint owners of a fully paid 5-room flat worth $520,000, with 65-year remaining lease. They choose to keep a 30-year lease, and sell the tail-end 35-year lease to HDB.