SINGAPORE - My condo is a leasehold one, bought 20 years ago at a price I could afford.
I don’t think I will outlive the 99-year lease. That thought doesn’t bother me, especially when the unit has already served its purpose as a home, an investment and a place of memories.
I live in Tanjong Rhu, where most developments sit on 99-year leases. Today, the value of my condo has appreciated threefold. Along the way, friends have urged me to sell it as the lease runs down. But I have no plans to.
I like the walks in the neighbourhood, the familiarity of faces in the lift lobby, the ease of getting to the beach and to the city from where I live. The home still suits my lifestyle and I enjoy living there. That, to me, is value enough.
My thinking may put me in a minority on a topic that affects many of us. Most households in Singapore live in Housing Board flats, not private condominiums. But condos, too, have leases that end, and the questions about what a home is for and what we hope to leave behind are the same ones that HDB flat owners face.
Once a lease expires, the land goes back to the state. As time runs out in the later years of a lease, the prices are likely to soften.
But between the day you collect your keys and the day the lease runs out lie several decades of living. In those years, a property can give you more than capital gains. It can offer stability, community and the daily familiarity that never appears in a valuation report.
A couple who bought an HDB flat in a mature estate 30 years ago may have seen a new MRT line arrive, watched coffee shops and retail shops multiply, and built up a network of neighbours who help one another.
The flat’s remaining lease today may worry them. But the flat has already delivered decades of use and, in many cases, paper gains they never imagined when they first moved in.
First-generation flat owners in older estates have, in fact, more options than they sometimes acknowledge.
Many bought their HDB flats at modest prices in the 1970s and 1980s. As towns matured and amenities improved, resale values rose. Some owners sold and used the gains to move to larger flats, or to newer units in other estates. Others chose to right-size into smaller flats closer to amenities or nearer to work or medical facilities.
The point is that not everyone must upgrade or cash out, but that system created windows of opportunity.
Home owners who were not emotionally tied to their home could, at various points, have sold their unit when the lease was still relatively fresh and prices were high, then bought a newer flat with a longer remaining lease, or even a small freehold condo if they were willing to trade location and space.
Those who valued the familiar environment and social ties might have chosen to stay put, even if they knew that resale prices might flatten or fall as the lease aged.
The issue of inheritance
You cannot change the 99-year framework, but you can decide how and when to act within it.
Even today, there are HDB flat owners in older estates sitting on substantial gains. A flat bought for under $100,000 decades ago may now be worth several times that amount. Some owners will eventually sell and help the next generation with down payments on their own homes, even if the flat itself is not passed down.
The choices available to a Tanjong Rhu condo owner and a Toa Payoh flat owner may differ in scale, but the underlying trade-offs are similar. Tenure versus location, space versus price, profit versus attachment.
In many Asian families, property is seen as legacy, not just shelter. Parents often think about what they can leave for their children.
This is where some owners want the best of both worlds, which may be hard to achieve.
The Voluntary Early Redevelopment Scheme (VERS), for example, aims to facilitate urban renewal. When it is rolled out, owners of ageing flats in certain sites may vote for the Government to buy back their homes. The scheme is voluntary and not meant to be a wealth-generating programme, the authorities have clarified.
Some owners will be glad to salvage some value from the flats before these plummet on account of the short remaining leases. Others will eye high payouts and it may be hard for them to accept the gap between what they are offered and what they expect. As with all trade-offs, something has to give.
It is true that, for many households, the flat is their single largest store of wealth. Selling can feel like giving up security and holding on can feel like fulfilling an obligation to the next generation.
Yet expectations between generations are changing.
A friend of mine owns a flat in Marine Parade but now lives with her children in a private property. Her children have urged her to sell the 50-year-old flat, but she has refused. Her children tell her that they don’t need it and, in fact, they feel it would create more paperwork for them when their parents pass on.
But to my friend, the flat gives her something to fall back on if she ever needs it and something she can leave to the next generation.
Calculating value
I have chosen to see my Tanjong Rhu condo primarily as a home for my lifetime. If it ends up being useful to the next generation, that will be a bonus.
For my neighbours, it may make more sense to sell. Many home owners have walked away with handsome profits. A two-bedder leasehold condo unit in the area bought for under $500,000 in the early 2000s can fetch more than triple that today.
At Lakeview Estate in Upper Thomson, almost 50 years into its lease, a 1,614 sq ft unit that sold for $620,000 in 1997 changed hands at $1.79 million in March 2024, data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed.
A unit of similar size in 48-year-old Lagoon View in Marine Parade sold at $1.88 million in May 2025. The seller had paid $450,000 for the unit in 2003. Even Loyang Valley, with just 56 years left on its lease, has seen strong resale prices in these two years.
There are also people willing to buy into very short leases, which means sellers can still find buyers.
In Bedok, a 3,208 sq ft landed house in Jalan Chempaka Kuning with 10 years left on its lease, was sold to an HDB upgrader for $480,000 in August 2024. It’s like paying around $4,000 each month for the property until the lease runs out. Compared with renting, owning a short-lease landed property can be cheaper. Buyers get the lifestyle of living in a landed property at a fraction of the cost.
It’s not unlike the car market. Some people want brand-new vehicles with the latest features. Others happily buy a nine-year-old car with one year left on its certificate of entitlement. The depreciation is low, the upfront cost affordable. Some people may still feel it’s worth it.
So where does this leave leasehold homes?
The law is clear – leases expire and land is recycled. VERS, if it comes, is a bonus, not a solution. Owners who want to lock in value can act earlier; those who hold on should do so with their eyes open.
The key is to recognise that while you cannot control the rules of the system, you can control how you move within it.
If maximising financial value and leaving an asset behind are your main priorities, it may make sense to sell earlier in the lease, realise gains and buy a younger property, whether it is a smaller freehold apartment or a newer HDB flat.
For me, the value of my home lies not just in how much it is worth on paper, or in what might happen after I am gone and the lease runs down further. It lies in the life it has housed, and in the years it still has to offer, even as the number on the deed continues to fall.
- Joyce Lim covers Singapore’s property market and redevelopment trends.
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