Singapore’s opposition Workers’ Party floats ideas to help fund retirement through HDB public housing home ownership
- Party proposes a universal buyback scheme to enable home owners to extract value of aged flats with decaying leases
- Asks government to buy back ageing properties from leasehold owners and use flats for rental market
One key suggestion by the Workers’ Party, which holds six of the 88 elected seats in parliament, is to expand on the Lease Buyback Scheme that helps senior citizens monetise the 99-year ownership of their leasehold public housing flats while they live in them.
In a 60-page paper published on its website on Friday, the party suggested a Universal Sale and Lease Back scheme that is open to all homeowners with a remaining tenure of 39 years or less. These flats will then be sold to the government.
About eight in 10 Singaporeans live in the more than 1 million flats managed by the Housing and Development Board (HDB), either bought directly from the government or on the resale market. Their value has appreciated over the years, with some selling for more than S$1 million (US$730,000).
But with the oldest flats nearing 50 years old, anxiety is growing over the rate of depreciation and ultimate worth of the homes.
The Workers’ Party said past policies had “created an entrenched mindset in some quarters that HDB flats should be an ever-appreciating asset class – a belief that, in the final analysis, cannot be reconciled with the reality of 99-year leases”.