HDB Leasing Guidelines – What A Landlord Needs to Know

HDB Leasing Guidelines for Leasing HDB Flats and Rooms

As a landlord leasing out your HDB flat or rooms, you do not want to run afoul of the Housing Development Board (HDB) guidelines and rules that govern rental transactions of HDB flats and rooms. To save you ending up in unnecessary trouble, here’s a heads-up on some issues you need to be aware of.

Short-term Leases

HDB flats are meant for owner-occupation. Flat owners are not allowed to sublet their flats/rooms on a short-term basis. The period of subletting must be 6 months or more.

What if you aspire to be an Airbnb landlord? Not permissible for HDB flats. Chop plus confirm. For the foreseeable future, anyway.

Subletting the Whole Flat

To sublet the whole flat, you must seek prior approval from HDB. If the Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) is not met, you cannot legally sublet the whole flat. Lock one room also cannot.

Subletting Rooms

To sublet one (or more) of your bedrooms, you must also seek prior approval from HDB.

You must continue to live in the flat during the period of subletting and comply with other subletting conditions. Simply locking one bedroom is unacceptable.

If you own either a one-room flat or a two-room flat, you are not allowed to sublet your bedrooms. At all.

Eligibility of Tenants

You should ensure that you sublet your flat or bedroom to eligible tenants only. You should also ensure that there is no overcrowding within the flat and the number of tenants does not exceed the maximum number allowed by HDB. Read: HDB Revises Occupancy Cap for Renting Out HDB Flats.