Fridae

If you and a same-sex partner used Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings to buy a home together in Singapore, pull up both sets of figures before you count on cash from a sale. Even when you own the same home, the amounts you drew from your CPF accounts can differ.

CPF Board says the housing refund usually covers the savings you used for the property and the interest those savings would have earned in CPF. That money goes back into your own CPF account. If you pledged the property towards your retirement sum, find out whether the pledged amount also needs to be refunded.

For a sale at market value, CPF Board says you do not need to top up the CPF refund shortfall in cash if the sale price after paying the outstanding housing loan falls short of the required refund. Cash option money from the buyer counts towards the sale price and must be accounted for in the CPF refunds before completion.

Each co-owner can find their own refund figure on the CPF Home ownership dashboard. Put both figures next to the expected sale price, outstanding loan and any applicable fees or levies before budgeting for a move. If one of you plans to keep the home and buy out the other, CPF Board has a separate calculation for selling a share.