Percentage of HDB Flats Approved for Renting Out in Open Market

Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked the Minister for National Development (a) what is the current percentage of HDB flats that have been approved to be rented out in the open market, broken down by (i) flat type and (ii) town; (b) what is the percentage that has been rented out to Malaysians and other nationalities respectively; and (c) whether the Ministry will ensure a better mix of nationalities and restrict the concentration of tenants from a particular nationality.

As of January 2021, about 6% of the approximately 1 million sold HDB flats are being rented out. Of these, about one-third are 4-room flats, one-third are 3-room flats, and the remaining one-third are other flat types.

Of all the flats being rented out, about 27% are rented out to households comprising Singaporean or Malaysian tenants, or a mix of both. The remaining 73% are rented out to households that include tenants of other nationalities.

To prevent the formation of foreigner enclaves, HDB introduced the Non-Citizen (NC) Quota for Renting Out of Flat in 2014 to cap the number of flats that can be wholly rented out to non-Malaysian NCs within each block and neighbourhood. The NC quotas at the block and neighbourhood levels are 11% and 8% respectively. As of January 2021, about 1% of HDB blocks and fewer than 1% of neighbourhoods are affected by the NC quota.