Silver Housing Bonus scheme extended to more private property owners who downsize
Scheme incentivises seniors to sell their homes to move into a smaller HDB flat and boost their retirement income
MORE private property owners will qualify for the government’s Silver Housing Bonus (SHB) scheme, which gives a cash bonus to seniors who sell their homes to move into a smaller public housing flat and top up their retirement accounts.
The enhanced scheme will now extend to senior owners of “lower-value” private properties with an annual value (AV) of S$21,000 to S$31,000.
Requirements of the scheme have been adjusted so that it gives bonuses of up to S$40,000 to eligible seniors. The changes, meant to better support retirement adequacy, were announced by National Development Minister Desmond Lee on Wednesday (Mar 5).
With the extension, more than 15,000 additional seniors can now qualify for the SHB scheme, said Lee. More than three in four residential properties will also be covered by it.
The SHB scheme hopes to steer seniors towards “rightsizing”, monetising their homes in exchange for a smaller flat and beefing up their retirement funds. The Business Times understands properties with an AV of between S$21,000 and S$31,000 could have a market value of between S$1 million and S$1.5 million.
While the enhanced scheme could send more buyers into a limited supply pool of smaller Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats, the Ministry of National Development and HDB do not expect to see a significant impact on the public housing resale market.
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“When the SHB was introduced in February 2013, and enhanced in March 2020, we did not see a spike in the resale prices of smaller HDB flats.”
There is a strong pipeline of new flats to meet demand in the next few years, including a steady supply of community care apartments, they added.
As at Dec 31, about 2,535 households have taken up the SHB since it was launched 12 years ago. In the last two years, an average of 400 to 500 households a year took up the scheme.
The scheme gives those aged 55 and up a bonus of up to S$30,000 for “rightsizing” to a three-room or smaller flat (new or resale), from an HDB flat or private property with an AV not exceeding S$21,000.
They will get the maximum cash bonus of S$30,000 if they top up their Central Provident Fund (CPF) Retirement Accounts (RA) with S$60,000 of the cash proceeds from selling their property, and join the lifelong annuity scheme CPF Life.
From Dec 1, 2025, seniors will qualify for the SHB as long as they commit up to S$60,000 in their CPF RA – whether in cash proceeds from their home sale or from their CPF housing refunds.
Seniors who downsize to a two-room flat or smaller, including community care apartments, will get an additional bonus of up to S$10,000, regardless of the amount committed to their RA.
This will increase the maximum bonus eligible seniors may receive to S$40,000.
The scheme is now also extended to owners of private property with an AV of between S$21,000 and S$31,000. But this group will receive a lower bonus – of up to S$10,000 if they downsize to a three-room flat, or up to S$20,000 if they buy a two-room flat.
The AV is the estimated gross annual rent of a property if it were to be rented out, excluding furniture, furnishings and maintenance fees. It is determined based on estimated market rentals of similar or comparable properties.
Properties with an AV of between S$21,000 and S$31,000 might earn a monthly net rental value of S$1,750 to S$2,583, after deducting furniture, furnishing and maintenance fees.
Ease programme
The government will also expand the Enhancement for Active Seniors (Ease) programme, which subsidises senior-friendly fittings and installations for HDB households, to include private property households. This was first announced by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in his Budget 2025 speech.
Singapore citizen households living in private properties, with at least one senior, will now be able to take up this scheme. The subsidy will cover 75 per cent of the cost of senior-friendly fittings, capped at S$1,200.
More than 70,000 households are expected to benefit from the move. It will be rolled out as a three-year programme, and is targeted to launch by the first quarter of 2026.
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