This study aimed to examine the prognostic value of lipid parameters for incident hypertension in elderly living in a community. The study included 306 (81% from total) persons aged > 60 years who were free of hypertension and of cardiovascular diseases at the baseline survey of the Bambuí Cohort Study of Aging. The cumulative incidence of hypertension over three years was 37.3%. The relative risk (RR) of incident hypertension decreased 0.92 for each unit of HDL-cholesterol (95%CI: 0.86-0.99) independent of several potential confounding factors. Individuals with HDL-cholesterol in the top tercile (> 55 mg/dL) had a risk of hypertension halve that those in the bottom tercile (RR = 0.54; 95%CI: 0.33-0.90). Other lipid parameters had no significant effect on the outcome. High HDL-cholesterol showed an independent protective effect on subsequent development of hypertension in the elderly.