What does the Lease Buyback Scheme actually pay?
It sells the tail end of your flat’s lease back to HDB and lets you keep living in it. Most of the money never reaches you as cash. It goes into your CPF Retirement Account first, to buy a monthly income — and there is a threshold to clear before a single dollar comes back out. This works out where that threshold falls for your household, what you take home, and what you give up permanently.
Your household
The proceeds figure is yours to supply, and it is the one number nobody can look up. HDB values each tail-end lease case by case and publishes no formula for it, so this page cannot derive it from your block, your flat type or your remaining lease. The default of $190,000 is the figure in HDB’s own worked example, for a 4-room flat valued at $450,000 with 65 years left, selling a 35-year tail.
Where the money goes
On $190,000 of net proceeds, the household takes $24,600 in hand — 13 per cent of the sale — and $180,400 goes into CPF, where it buys a monthly income rather than sitting as savings you can draw on.
Show the figures
| Owner | Must top up to | Share of proceeds | Into CPF | Cash kept |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Owner 1, aged 65 | $110,200 | $95,000 | $90,200 | $4,800 |
| Owner 2, aged 65 | $110,200 | $95,000 | $90,200 | $4,800 |
The threshold before any cash
This is the part the brochures do not put a number on. Each owner tops up their own Retirement Account from their own share of the proceeds before keeping anything. So the household sees its first dollar of cash only once somebody’s share clears their shortfall.
For this household the first cash arrives at $180,400 of proceeds. Below that, the sale produces no cash at all — only the bonus.
| If the tail-end lease sells for | Into CPF | Cash | Bonus | In hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $100,000 | $100,000 | $0 | $15,000 | $15,000 |
| $150,000 | $150,000 | $0 | $15,000 | $15,000 |
| $200,000 | $180,400 | $19,600 | $15,000 | $34,600 |
| $250,000 | $180,400 | $69,600 | $15,000 | $84,600 |
| $300,000 | $200,000 | $100,000 | $15,000 | $115,000 |
| $400,000 | $300,000 | $100,000 | $15,000 | $115,000 |
The cash column is flat at zero up to the threshold and then flat again at $100,000 once the cap bites. Between those two points is the only range where selling a longer tail puts more money in your hands — above the cap, the extra proceeds top each owner up to the full retirement sum instead.
The bonus is largest where the flat is smallest
A 3-room household can receive four times the bonus of a 5-room one, and the match rate below the $60,000 threshold is four times as generous too. A smaller flat has a less valuable tail-end lease, so the bonus is deliberately largest where the proceeds are smallest.
| Flat type | Maximum bonus | Below $60,000 topped up |
|---|---|---|
| 3-room or smaller | $30,000 | $1 for every $2 topped up |
| 4-room | $15,000 | $1 for every $4 topped up |
| 5-room or bigger | $7,500 | $1 for every $8 topped up |
The household receives no bonus at all if every owner has already reached the full retirement sum and so needs no top-up. HDB’s terms allow such a household to top up Medisave or a spouse’s accounts instead, to reach the threshold; that case is settled on application and is not modelled here.
What you give up, and cannot get back
These are conditions of the scheme, not risks. They apply from the day the sale completes.
- You can never sell the flat on the open market again. The retained lease is not transferable.
- You can never rent out the whole flat. The scheme is for ageing in place, and renting out the whole flat would defeat it.
- Ending it early means returning the flat to HDB, with a refund for the remaining lease pro-rated on a straight-line basis. Your CPF LIFE plan continues regardless.
- If you outlive the lease, HDB says you will not be left homeless and will work out an arrangement with you and your family — its own wording, and not a number anyone can plan against.
- You can take the LBS bonus or the Silver Housing Bonus, not both.
- At 80 or above you cannot join CPF LIFE. The savings pay out under the Retirement Sum Scheme, which runs until the money is gone rather than for life — so the lifelong income the scheme is described by does not reach its oldest applicants.
Who qualifies
| Criterion | Condition |
|---|---|
| Age | All owners at or above the eligibility age, currently 65 |
| Citizenship | At least one owner a Singapore Citizen |
| Income | Gross monthly household income of $16,000 or less |
| Flat type | All types, except short-lease flats, HUDC and Executive Condominiums |
| Property | No private residential property, and no more than one non-residential |
| Occupation | At least 5 years living in the flat, or 10 for a Plus or Prime flat |
| Lease | At least 20 years of lease to sell to HDB |
How much lease you can keep
Set by the age of the youngest owner — not the oldest, and not whoever applies. The less lease you keep, the longer the tail you sell and the larger the proceeds, so this choice is money now against lease later.
| Age of youngest owner | Minimum kept | Other options |
|---|---|---|
| 65 to 69 | 30 years | 35 |
| 70 to 74 | 25 years | 30, 35 |
| 75 to 79 | 20 years | 25, 30, 35 |
| 80 and above | 15 years | 20, 25, 30, 35 |
Your youngest owner is 65, so the household must keep at least 30 years and may choose 35 instead.
The top-up requirement, as published
This table is the engine of everything above, and HDB re-publishes it every year because it is indexed to the CPF Full Retirement Sum. A sole owner tops up to the age-adjusted full retirement sum; where there are two or more owners, each tops up to the age-adjusted basic retirement sum, which is exactly half.
| Flat owner’s age | One owner | Two or more owners |
|---|---|---|
| 65 to 69 | $220,400 | $110,200 |
| 70 to 79 | $210,400 | $105,200 |
| 80 and above | $200,400 | $100,200 |
Applications received from Jan 1, 2026. Read from HDB on Oct 24, 2026. Because the table expires, this page refuses to compute rather than apply a lapsed one: when HDB publishes the next year’s figures and this file has not been updated, the calculator fails loudly instead of quietly using the wrong retirement sum.
What this cannot tell you
- What HDB will pay for your tail-end lease. This is the largest unknown on the page and there is no way around it: HDB values each case individually and publishes no formula, no table and no worked range. Every figure above follows from the proceeds you typed in.
- Whether the illustration resembles your flat. HDB’s example prices a 4-room at $450,000. The national median 4-room resale over the twelve months to Oct 2026 was $630,000 across 11,581 sales — but a flat whose owners are 65 or older is an older flat than the median one, with less lease left, so this is context for the illustration rather than a correction to it.
- What your CPF LIFE payout would be. That depends on the plan chosen and the prevailing rates, and it is CPF’s calculation, not HDB’s and not this site’s.
- The apportionment in the rarest case. Where proceeds exceed the cash cap and owners have unequal room below the full retirement sum, HDB’s published wording does not say how the excess is split. This page apportions it in proportion to each owner’s remaining share, which keeps every top-up inside that owner’s own money as the terms require. It changes nothing for a household below the cap.
- Whether you should do it. It computes; it does not advise. Joining cannot be undone, and health, family and your other savings matter more than the arithmetic.
Questions people ask
- How much cash do you actually get from the Lease Buyback Scheme?
- Usually far less than the proceeds, because the proceeds go into your CPF Retirement Account first. Each owner must top their own account up to the age-adjusted retirement sum out of their own share before keeping anything. For a couple both aged 65 holding $20,000 each, that is $180,400 — so on proceeds of $180,000 the household keeps no cash at all, and takes home only the LBS bonus. Above the threshold, the household may keep up to $100,000 in cash; anything beyond that goes back into CPF to top each owner up to the full retirement sum. The scheme converts a flat into a lifelong monthly income, not into a lump sum.
- How much is the LBS bonus, and who gets the most?
- Up to $30,000 for a 3-room or smaller flat, $15,000 for a 4-room and $7,500 for a 5-room or bigger. The full amount is paid once the household tops up $60,000 or more to their Retirement Accounts; below that it is matched at $1 for every $2 topped up for a 3-room or smaller, $1 for every $4 for a 4-room, and $1 for every $8 for a 5-room or bigger. The bonus is therefore largest where the flat, and so the tail-end lease, is worth least — a 3-room household can receive four times the bonus of a 5-room one.
- Who is eligible for the Lease Buyback Scheme in 2026?
- All owners must have reached the eligibility age, currently 65. At least one owner must be a Singapore Citizen. Gross monthly household income must be $16,000 or less. All owners must have lived in the flat for at least 5 years, or 10 years for a Plus or Prime flat. There must be at least 20 years of lease to sell to HDB, and the household must not own private residential property. All flat types qualify apart from short-lease flats, HUDC flats and Executive Condominium units.
- What do you give up by joining the Lease Buyback Scheme?
- Permanently: the right to sell the flat on the open market, and the right to rent out the whole flat. The retained lease is not transferable. If you terminate early you return the flat to HDB and receive a refund for the remaining lease, pro-rated on a straight-line basis. If you outlive the lease, HDB says you will not be left homeless and will work out a housing arrangement with you and your family. A household can take either the LBS bonus or the Silver Housing Bonus, never both.
- Does everyone who joins get a monthly income for life?
- No, and this is the part least often said. Your Retirement Account savings buy a CPF LIFE plan — which does pay for life — only if you have at least $60,000 in the account after the top-up and you are under 80. An owner aged 80 or above cannot join CPF LIFE at all; their savings pay out under the Retirement Sum Scheme instead, which pays until the money runs out rather than for life. Since the scheme admits owners at any age from 65, some applicants are in exactly that position.
- How much lease can you keep?
- It depends on the age of the youngest owner, not the oldest or the applicant. A household whose youngest owner is 65 to 69 keeps a minimum of 30 years and may choose 35. At 70 to 74 the minimum is 25, at 75 to 79 it is 20, and at 80 or above it is 15. The shorter the lease you keep, the longer the tail you sell and the larger the proceeds — so the choice is between money now and lease later.
- Is this financial advice?
- No. It computes; it does not advise. The figures here are arithmetic over HDB’s published rules and the numbers you enter. Whether the Lease Buyback Scheme suits you depends on your health, your family, your other savings and your plans for the flat — none of which a calculator can see, and all of which matter more than the arithmetic, because joining cannot be undone.