Number of Owners Having Breached Terms and Conditions for Renting Out Rooms in HDB Flats

Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked the Minister for National Development (a) in the last five years, how many HDB flat owners have breached HDB's terms and conditions for the renting out of their rooms; (b) what are the common reasons provided for breaching these terms and conditions; (c) whether appeals are made against HDB's revocation of the rental approval due to the breach; and (d) if so, how many appeals have been successful.

Owners of 3-room and larger HDB flats are allowed to rent out their spare bedrooms for rental income, subject to the prevailing terms and conditions, such as the occupancy cap and whether the tenants are allowed to rent HDB rooms. Flat owners must obtain prior approval from HDB to rent out their bedrooms and inform HDB of any changes made to the tenancy records, such as a change of tenants or early termination of tenancy, for the duration of the approval.

Between 2017 and 2021, HDB approved about 456,000 applications from flat owners to rent out their bedrooms. Of these, 41 approvals, or less than 0.01% of approved applications, were later revoked as the owners had breached the terms and conditions governing the renting out of bedrooms. The most common reasons include failure to update HDB on subsequent changes of tenants and exceeding the occupancy cap.

Owners who have their room rental approvals revoked may submit a fresh application for bedroom rental if they meet the terms and conditions to do so, without the need for an appeal.