Want to rent out whole HDB flat? What you need to know before you do so

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by Ravi Chandran June 5, 2019, 2:36 pm 2.3k Views

You can rent out your whole HDB flat if you are a Singapore Citizen, and if you and your tenants meet certain conditions.

There are the various eligibility conditions that you and your tenants have to meet before renting out your whole HDB flat, and there is also a Non-Citizen Quota for Renting Out of Flat.

Table of Contents

The first thing you need to know before renting out your entire HDB flat is that only Singapore Citizens are allowed to rent out the HDB flat. Singapore Permanent Resident flat owners are not allowed to do so.

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Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) for Renting out Your Whole HDB Flat

You can rent out your flat after fulfilling the 5-year MOP. If your flat is non-subsidised (purchased from the open market without a housing grant) and purchased before 30 August 2010, the MOP is 3 years.

If you are the original purchaser, the MOP is computed from the date of purchase of the flat
If there has been a transfer of flat ownership, the MOP is computed from the effective date of the transfer of flat ownership, or the date the owner was included as an authorised occupier of the flat
After a resale of part-share, the owners have to meet a fresh MOP computed from the effective date of resale

You will have to consider the Non-Citizen Quota for Renting Out of Flat if any tenant renting your flat is a non-Malaysian non-citizen (Singapore Permanent Resident or foreigner). The quota is to help maintain a good ethnic mix in HDB estates. Malaysians are not subject to this quota in view of their close cultural and historical similarities with Singaporeans.

The quota is set at 8% at the neighbourhood level and 11% at the block level, and applicable if any tenant renting the whole flat is a non-Malaysian non-citizen (Singapore Permanent Resident or foreigner) . If the quota is reached, only Singaporeans and Malaysians can rent a flat in that neighbourhood/ block.

This quota is only applicable if you are renting out your whole HDB flat, and does not apply to the rental of bedrooms.

There are also eligibility conditions for persons who wish to rent HDB flats. Persons who wish to rent HDB flats must be any of the following:

Singapore Citizens
Singapore Permanent Residents
Non-citizens legally residing in Singapore who are holders of Employment Passes, S Passes, Work Permits, Student Passes, Dependant Passes, or Long-Term Social Visit Passes. These passes must have a validity period of at least 6 months as at the date of your application
- Work Permit holders from the construction, manufacturing, marine, and process sectors must be Malaysians
- Tourists are not allowed as tenants of HDB flats

If you are renting out the flat to a company to house its employees, the employees must also meet the above eligibility conditions for tenants.

Maximum number of tenants

These are the maximum number of tenants allowed in each flat:

Flat Type	Total Number of tenants
1-room and 2-room	4
3-room and bigger	6

Tenancy and property ownership status

Tenants must not be tenants of public rental HDB flats or owners of other HDB flats unless they are:

Divorced/ legally separated. In this case, only 1 party can rent a HDB flat from another flat owner
Owners who are eligible to rent out their whole flat. However, they must rent out their own flat within a month after they have rented an HDB flat from another flat owner

Tenants must not be owners of Executive Condominium units where the 5-year MOP has not been met.

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If after reading this you feel that you qualify to enter into an agreement to rent a whole HDB flat, the these are the median rents by town and flat type.

1^st quarter of 2019

Town	1-Room	2-Room	3-Room	4-Room	5-Room	Executive
Ang Mo Kio	–	*	$1,700	$2,100	$2,300	*
Bedok	–	*	$1,700	$2,000	$2,250	$2,400
Bishan	–	–	$1,800	$2,200	$2,500	*
Bukit Batok	–	*	$1,600	$1,900	$2,100	$2,200
Bukit Merah	*	$1,600	$1,900	$2,500	$2,800	*
Bukit Panjang	–	*	$1,500	$1,700	$1,900	$2,000
Bukit Timah	–	–	*	*	*	*
Central	–	*	$2,150	$2,700	*	–
Choa Chu Kang	–	*	*	$1,700	$1,800	$2,000
Clementi	–	–	$1,800	$2,300	$2,580	*
Geylang	–	*	$1,800	$2,300	$2,500	*
Hougang	–	*	$1,600	$1,900	$2,050	$2,250
Jurong East	–	*	$1,700	S2,030	$2,300	$2,500
Jurong West	–	*	$1,600	$1,950	$2,100	$2,250
Kallang/ Whampoa	–	*	$1,850	$2,400	$2,600	*
Marine Parade	–	–	$1,850	$2,100	$2,500	–
Pasir Ris	–	–	*	$2,000	$2,100	$2,250
Punggol	–	*	*	$1,800	$1,900	*
Queenstown	–	$1,400	$1,900	$2,500	$2,800	*
Sembawang	–	*	*	$1,800	$1,900	$2,000
Sengkang	–	*	*	$1,850	$1,900	$2,000
Serangoon	–	–	$1,800	$2,200	$2,250	*
Tampines	–	*	$1,700	$2,000	$2,200	$2,400
Toa Payoh	–	*	$1,800	$2,250	$2,500	*
Woodlands	–	*	$1,400	$1,750	$1,800	$2,100
Yishun	–	*	$1,550	$1,800	$2,000	$2,100

(-) Indicates that there are no rental transactions in the quarter
* Indicates that the median rent is not shown because there are less than 20 rental transactions in the quarter for that particular town and flat type

The statistics above provide the median rent of flats in various locations with rental approvals. The figures are based on rent declared in the application forms and rounded off to the nearest $10. The median rent indicates that half the total number of units were rented above that price while half were below. You can use the median rent as a guide before entering a tenancy agreement.

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