Hacker News Reader

Comment by janpeuker | Hacker News Reader

I think it's also relevant that CPF is not only a pension schema but most importantly also a home ownership scheme via HDB OA https://www.cpf.gov.sg/member/home-ownership/using-your-cpf-...

View on HN

The "gotcha" here is that the home is, legally and technically, on a 99-year lease from the government. So, the government is free to take it back once the lease expires. This happened a couple of years back with an old enclave - the "owners" had to vacate their units as their lease had expired and the government needed the land for developmental purposes.

In fact, this had become a hot button issue in the elections. All this while, and even today the government claims that the people are the owner considering they can sell the units and book profits. On the other hand, they justify the 99-year limit, as a step to being fair towards future generations in a land scarce country.

There have been many policy and public discussions around this topic. But, as of date, there is no firm or permanent solution to this conundrum.

this is almost entirely orthogonal. you can use cpf for private, non-99year lease housing too.

Thanks for correcting me; I accept that CPF can be used for both the cases you have mentioned.

My comment came from two observations: 1. The majority of Singapore citizens live in HDB. 2. The vast majority of non-landed residential properties (private condos and HDBs) are on 99-year leases.

You also get health insurance.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com