Freedom Age / Methodology

How Freedom Age computes its figures

Freedom Age runs your five answers through published HDB, CPF, IRAS and MAS rules, and a short list of stated assumptions, and shows the age your home could start paying the income you want.

Updated 7 October 2026.

Freedom Age shows three kinds of figure.

• Records. What an agency has published or what has been recorded, such as registered resales of HDB flats.
• Rules. What MAS, IRAS, HDB and the CPF Board set, such as loan limits and stamp duties.
• Assumptions. What has to be assumed about the future, such as how fast prices grow. We state each one below. On a result, a figure that rests on an assumption is labelled as stated, not measured.

Everything here is general information, not financial advice.

The value of your home

You can always type your own figure, and the plan then uses yours. Otherwise Freedom Age asks NAVARO's own services for an estimate.

• An HDB flat. You pick the block. Freedom Age asks Flatworth, NAVARO's HDB tool, for the estimate of one flat type in that block: the flat type with the most units (you can change it), a recorded size for it, and a middle storey, taken as half the block's highest floor. Flatworth works from HDB resale and rental records published on data.gov.sg, and returns a middle figure with a range. Its method and how it tested the range are at flatworth.com. Where it has no estimate, Freedom Age asks you for a value.
• A condominium. An estimate for your unit from recorded sales in the project, through Headroom, NAVARO's condominium tool.
• A landed home. The land area you give, times the median price per square foot of land from recorded landed sales in the district, or the national median where the district has none.

What it cannot see. Condition, renovation, view, layout or defects. It is not a formal valuation, a bank valuation or HDB's valuation.

The rules every figure uses

The rules sit in one place in our code. When a rule changes, that place changes and every figure follows. Each rule below names the official page it comes from; if a rule here differs from that page, the official page is right and we want to hear about it.

One CPF figure is not in this table because we have not yet checked it against the CPF Board's current tables: the share of salary that CPF can put towards an instalment, and the salary ceiling it applies to. The month section below says where it is used.

The stated assumptions

These are the figures we cannot read from a record, because they are about the future or are a matter of practice. Each is stated.

If the market figures cannot be read at all, the result uses stated figures and says so.

Your Freedom Age

What you see: an age, or no age on this scenario.

1. We project your household year by year, from today to age 90, for the move you picked.
2. Each year, each property grows at its rate, each loan is paid down, and each rental earns its rent after costs, less its instalment.
3. That year's income is the rent left after costs and instalments (less any rent you would pay to live somewhere, if the move has you renting), plus the yield on the income pot, plus a yield on property equity above the home you would still need.
4. The equity in a home you live in, while its loan runs, is locked and earns you no income.
5. The income is turned into today's dollars at 2% inflation a year.
6. Your Freedom Age is the first age, from 50, at which that income reaches the monthly amount you asked for.

What it cannot see. It is not a forecast. It is the earliest age on one stated path, and a different growth rate, rent or interest rate moves it. It does not count CPF LIFE payouts, the Lease Buyback Scheme or the Silver Housing Bonus, and it does not reduce a flat's value as its lease runs down.

The moves, and what each costs

What you see: for each move open to your household, the price it could reach, the loan, the cash and CPF needed up front, the stamp duties and the monthly instalment.

• Borrowing room. 55% of your recognised monthly income, less your other loan repayments. For an HDB flat, the repayment is also held to 30% of the income of the name or names buying.
• The largest loan. What that room supports at the 4% test rate over the loan length in the rules table.
• The price. The largest price at which the down payment, the stamp duties and S$3,000 of legal fees fit within your cash and the CPF of the names buying, and the cash share fits within your cash. The loan is the smaller of the loan-to-value limit and what your income supports.
• Your own price. If you name a price, the move is capped at it.
• CPF follows the name. Only the CPF of the names on the new title can pay for it. Cash belongs to the household.
• Buying bigger. A move meant to buy bigger has to add at least 10% in floor area or in value. If it does not, it is shown as standing still, with its costs.
• Loans that end. Repayments you say will end on a date drop out from that date. Anything that rests on that is labelled a scenario, not a fact.
• The MOP check. If you give the month you bought your flat, a move that sells it cannot start before the MOP ends, and a move that buys private property waits until then.

What it cannot see. The maximum loan is worked on the published rules and your answers. It is not a loan approval: only a bank decides what it will lend.

Cash from a sale, and your CPF refund

What you see: cash in hand after a sale, and the CPF that goes back to your account.

The sale price, less the loan still owed, less the agent's fee (2% plus 9% GST), less S$3,000 of legal fees, less the CPF refund. The refund is the CPF you used plus interest at 2.5% a year since the month you bought. We assume a quarter of that CPF was used when you bought, and the rest in equal monthly instalments since. If you do not give a purchase month, we count only the CPF you used.

Freedom Age keeps the refund as CPF and never counts it as cash. It does not model how CPF splits the refund between your Ordinary Account and your Retirement Account from age 55. Your exact refund is on the CPF Board's Home Ownership Dashboard.

The month

Instalments are worked at 3% a year on new loans and 2.5% on your current loan. The part CPF could pay is a stated share of your CPF-eligible salary, up to a stated monthly ceiling, and never more than the instalment. We have not yet checked that share and ceiling against the CPF Board's current tables, so treat the CPF part of the month as indicative. Rent is the district yield on the price, after the 68% kept.

Tests of the first purchase

Six tests are run on the first purchase of the move you picked, on the scenario you chose.

1. A flat market for five years. How much equity loan paydown alone adds, against the round-trip cost of buying and selling.
2. The mortgage rate 2 points higher. The instalment at that rate, and the difference.
3. Twelve months without a tenant. A year of instalments, plus 0.35% of the value for tax and maintenance. Shown for a rental.
4. A forced sale in year three. For a private home, Seller's Stamp Duty at 8% plus the costs, against three years of growth. For an HDB flat, it cannot be sold inside the MOP.
5. The lease when you sell. The years of lease left at the age you would sell, against a line of 65 years, below which we expect fewer buyers.
6. Ease of exit. Months of stock in the district: current listings against the district's sales rate. Under 4 months is tight, under 6 balanced, under 10 loosening, and 10 or more oversupplied. It is an indication only.

The year you act (the Freedom Plan)

What you see, in the paid plan: at ages 55, 60, 65, 70 and 75 (those after your current age), what everything you hold could sell for, and how the money could be split.

At the age you pick, the plan sells what you hold, repays the loans, pays the costs and returns the CPF refund with interest. The cash left is split four ways: a paid-off home, a rental, an income pot and cash.

• The default takes the largest home, from a two-bedroom condominium to a one-bedroom to a 3-room HDB flat, that still leaves at least 30% of the cash to pay you. A household on an HDB path starts from the 3-room flat.
• The home and the rental are priced at that year's prices: today's district median per square foot at typical sizes, or today's asking prices, grown along the scenario. A 3-room HDB flat is taken as 700 square feet at S$650 per square foot, grown at the HDB rate.
• The monthly income is the rental's rent after costs plus the pot's yield. The cash bucket is kept aside and not counted as income.
• You can move the buckets. The total cannot grow.

What it cannot see. It is a simulation on stated assumptions. The pot is an illustration, not a product.

If you describe your own move

If you choose "Something else" and describe a move in your own words, an AI model reads your words against your numbers and writes an answer. It is given your figures without your name, told to use only those figures, and told to say what it cannot work out. Its answer is analysis, not a computed figure, and it ends by saying so. The privacy policy names the provider and what it receives.

A plan shared with you

A plan shared at a private link is a snapshot of the figures on the day it was made. It does not change afterwards, even when the rules or market figures do.

What no figure here can see

• Your home's condition, renovation, view, layout or defects.
• A tenancy, a legal issue, or a collective sale.
• Records that are late, revised or incomplete. Registered sales lag the market.
• Your full financial position. We work only on what you tell us.
• The future. Prices can fall as well as rise.

How often figures change

• Rules: they change when MAS, IRAS, HDB or the CPF Board change them. They are kept in one place in our code.
• Market figures: refreshed regularly. Freedom Age reads them afresh at most every ten minutes when you run the check.
• HDB estimates: each shows the date it is as of.
• Stated assumptions: they change only when we change them, and this page changes with them.

Limits

Freedom Age has not been back-tested against what actually happened to households' homes. Treat each age as one stated path, not a prediction.

Error reports

If you think a figure is wrong, email hello@getfreedomage.com with the page and the figure. When we confirm an error, we will fix the page and note the date it changed. See About Freedom Age for how we are paid and where our figures come from.

NAVARO · last updated 7 October 2026 · About · Terms and prices · Disclaimer · Privacy · Find my Freedom Age