Lease Buyback Scheme a retirement option for Singaporeans: Teo

SINGAPORE — The Lease Buyback scheme is one option for Singaporeans to help prepare for retirement needs and there are other options — renting out the flat and moving to a smaller apartment — to do so as well, said Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean today (Aug 31).

Mr Teo was speaking to some 250 residents at a post-national day rally dialogue at Sengkang Community club, addressing calls by some residents for the scheme to be extended to larger HDB flats, or even to private property.

One resident, Mr Patrick Yeo, called for the proceeds from the scheme to be tied to the asset value of the property, so that Singaporeans living in bigger flats need not save so much for the Central Provident Fund Mininum Sum.

Another resident asked for the scheme to be extended to executive flats as these flats are also HDB flats providing subsidised housing for people.

Two weeks ago, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced at the National Day Rally that the Lease Buyback scheme has been extended to four-room flats.

Explaining why the lease buyback scheme was previously restricted to three-room and smaller flats, Mr Teo the scheme is aimed at helping elderly Singaporeans living on their own.

On why the scheme is not extended to larger flats such five room flats, Mr Teo said the government does not want to see people living in homes larger than what they need. Owners of these homes already have many other options such as renting out rooms and right sizing their homes, and they can consider these options first, he added.

Earlier this month, Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob, who chairs the Pioneer Generation Joint Committee, said her committee could look into the Lease Buyback Scheme — extended recently to four-room flats — and possible options for assuaging some concerns that may remain over the scheme.