The present invention relates to a broadband wireless access system, and more specifically aims to define an efficient handover (HO) procedure when a base station having a relatively narrow coverage, such as femto base station, and a macro base station are both present. A method for performing a handover by a mobile station (MS) in a broadband wireless access system according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises the steps of: determining the type of a target base station that satisfies the pre-set handover trigger conditions; starting the handover procedure for the target base station when the target base station is a first type base station according to the determined results, and starting a first timer when the target base station is a second type base station having narrower coverage than the first type base station according to the determined results; and determining whether communication with the target base station is possible after the first timer has been completed, if the first timer had been started.