WHAT ARE THE CHANGES
From Dec 1, seniors will qualify for the Silver Housing Bonus as long as they commit to a net increase of up to S$60,000 in their CPF Retirement Accounts after downsizing to a smaller flat.
The increase can come from CPF housing refunds, which is the amount homeowners have to put back into their CPF accounts if they had tapped on CPF savings to buy a home.
This means seniors “may no longer need to make a cash top-up” to be eligible for the scheme, said the Ministry of National Development and the Housing and Development Board (HDB) in a joint press release.
The scheme will also provide an additional S$10,000 cash bonus to seniors who purchase two-room or smaller flats, including community care apartments.
In this case, the additional incentive will “apply regardless” of the amount of top-ups to CPF Retirement Accounts, meaning that eligible seniors can receive cash bonuses of up to S$40,000.
Lastly, the Silver Housing Bonus scheme will be extended to include seniors who owned private properties with annual values of between S$21,000 and S$31,000.
However, this group of seniors will receive a lower cash bonus of up to S$10,000 if they downsize to a three-room flat, or up to S$20,000 for a two-room flat.
More than 15,000 additional seniors will qualify for the scheme under the new eligibility criteria. Altogether, the Silver Housing Bonus scheme will cover more than three in four residential properties, Mr Lee said.
The authorities do not expect changes to the Silver Housing Bonus to have a significant impact on the HDB resale market.
They noted that resale prices of smaller HDB flats “did not see a spike” when the scheme was first introduced in 2013 and later enhanced in 2020.
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