Some have tried to argue that you do not own your HDB flat because it is on leasehold. You are merely renting it permanently, they claimed. This argument does not hold water at all.
The basic rule of law is that you cannot sell something that does not belong to you. It would be illegal to do so. Of course, this also means you cannot buy from a non-owner. The sale would be invalid, and you will not get the title deed to the flat.
But, no one who owns their HDB flat doubts their ownership. Every day, apartments are sold on the resale markets and ownership changes. People spend thousands of dollars to renovate and redecorate their flats, changing floor tiles and fixtures within HDB guidelines. You can’t sell a rental apartment.
As the owner of your HDB flat, you can rent the whole flat or a spare room for cash. You cannot sublet your rental HDB flat.
The flat you own is a store of value that you can monetize when needed. You can sell it and downsize to a smaller flat to benefit from HDB Silver Housing Bonus, or you can monetize a portion of the lease through the Lease Buyback Scheme. You can’t do any of these with a rental flat. Every cent paid in rent is every cent spent.
Why have 99-year leases for HDB flats?
Residential properties with 99-year or shorter leases are not unique to Singapore or public housing. Cities like Hong Kong have residential properties sold on 50-year leases, and Canberra has a 99-year leasehold system.
In land-scarce Singapore, the leasehold system allows land to be recycled and re-developed to meet the needs of future Singaporeans. If flats are sold on a freehold basis, there won’t be enough land to build new apartments for future generations, and our society will become divided between those who own a property and those who do not.
Since 1967, all sites for private residential land in Singapore have also been sold on leases of not more than 99 years. Yet no private property owners have ever considered themselves renting personal property.
A 99-year lease is an ownership, not a tenancy. If you buy a car, you can use it for ten years. Do you not own the vehicle, or are you just renting it? A 99-year lease is far longer than ten years. It is yours. It is an asset. The homeowner owns it.
HDB flat buyers who purchase a new 99-year lease flat own the rights to their flats for 99 years in the same way that buyers of a 99-year leasehold private property own the rights to their property for the duration of their lease and would also regard themselves as homeowners.
Let’s not have a semantic argument but look at the facts of the matter. There are apparent and significant differences between owning and renting a flat.
