PM Lee Hsien Loong mentioned PropertyGuru in this year's National Day Rally speech, citing how retiring Singaporeans can get some money out of their houses – by renting out a room or entire flat - to get a steady income.
According to him, the Lease Buyback Scheme will be extended to four-room Housing Board flats, allowing owners of such flats to sell part of their lease back to the Government to supplement their retirement income.
The scheme, which was previously restricted to three-room and smaller flats, lets flat-owners sell part of their 99-year lease back to the Government, keeping only a 30-year lease. They will use the proceeds to top up their Central Provident Fund Retirement Accounts, making for larger monthly payouts under the CPF Life scheme. The rest of the sales proceeds will go to the homeowners as a lump sum in cash.
This move comes on the back of feedback from a number of seniors who are currently living in larger flats desiring to be eligible for the Lease Buyback Scheme.
Click here to view the complete video of the rally.
About PropertyGuru Group
PropertyGuru Group is Asia’s leading online property portal group used by almost 11 million property buyers, viewing over 91 million property pages and generating over 350,000 enquiries for real estate developer and agent advertisers – every month – across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. The Group has developed and launched 16 mobile applications in four countries and three languages. At the end of 2013, the Group recorded 1,357,946 downloaded mobile apps, resulting in a slew of three MOBEX awards sweep.
Headquartered in Singapore, PropertyGuru was founded in 2006 by two entrepreneurs with a vision to simplify the property search process and help buyers, sellers and investors make better property decisions faster. Taking advantage of Asia’s growing affluence, property demand and online explosion, the company received its first VC investment funding in 2008 and secured approximately $60m investment in 2012 from Deutsche Telekom, South East Asia’s largest digital investment to date.
PropertyGuru was also the first to integrate its website with social media, first to launch Singapore’s only dedicated
property newspaper – with over 100,000 copies circulated island-wide every month – and it has also developed a
property events platform, with approximately 30 shows held annually across four countries, addressing 30,000
potential property buyers on the ground.
For more queries, contact:
Harris Lim
Hill+Knowlton Strategies
6319 3329
harris.lim@hkstrategies.com
Rachel Lim
Hill+Knowlton Strategies
6390 3315
rachel.lim@hkstrategies.com