Business
HDB adopts a 3-pronged approach to help our retailers:
The Government has announced several measures as part of the Unity, Resilience, Solidarity, and Fortitude Budgets to help businesses and cushion the impact of COVID-19, including enhanced rental rebates. Qualifying tenants in HDB Shops and Social-Communal Facilities have received 4 months of rental rebates in total, for the months of March (half a month), April, May, June, and July (half a month). Qualifying tenants in HDB Offices have received 2 months of rental rebates in total, for the months of April and May. Details are in tenants’ tax invoices, which can be retrieved on tenants’ My Business page.
Under the New Rental Relief Framework for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) (Amendment) Act from the Ministry of Law (MinLaw), eligible SME sub-tenants will receive rental waivers from their Landlords or Master Tenants as follows:
Type of Sub-Tenant
Minimum Rental Waiver for Shops and Stalls In Eating Houses & Markets
Minimum Rental Waiver for Offices
Impacted SME
4 months (April to July 2020) of sub-tenant’s rent
2 months (April to May 2020) of sub-tenant’s rent
Less Impacted SME
(Less than 35% drop in average monthly revenue during COVID-19)
1 month (April 2020) of sub-tenant’s rent
Note: To qualify, sub-tenants must be SMEs (<$100 million annual revenue) and have entered into the sub-tenancy contract before 25 Mar 2020.
Sold HDB Shops
To support these rental waivers, the Sold Shop owner will receive Government Assistance from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS). For more details, please refer to the MinLaw website.
Rental HDB Shops
Master Tenants of Rental HDB Shops have received 4 months of rental rebates for shops; and 2 months of rental rebates for offices. Master Tenants are required to grant their sub-tenants the necessary waivers under the New Rental Relief Framework for SMEs (see Table above), and top up the waivers (if needed) so that at least 80% of the total rental rebate received by the Master Tenant is passed down to sub-tenants. HDB has notified our Master Tenants of these rental waiver obligations. For more details, please refer to these FAQs for HDB Master Tenants (PDF, 506KB).
What should I do if my Landlord or Master Tenant has not extended the rental waivers to me?
You may discuss with your Landlord or Master Tenant to request that they grant the necessary waivers. If you have already paid rent for the relevant months covered under the Rental Relief Framework, the rent paid should be refunded or offset against future months’ rentals. At the same time, the Landlord or Master Tenant may still collect utilities, service, maintenance and related fees for the relevant months.
If you encounter any difficulties, you may:
The ROS scheme is part of our measures to help HDB retailers. It has benefitted more than 4,600 shops from 57 HDB Town Centres and Neighbourhood Centres.
We introduced the ROS scheme in November 2007, and enhanced it in 2016, to boost the vibrancy and competitiveness of HDB shops. Where HDB retailers or the local Merchants' Associations (MAs) are keen to spearhead revitalisation efforts, the ROS scheme can help retailers upgrade the shopping environment and carry out promotional events.
Over the years, many MAs have worked with Town Councils and Grassroots Organisations to upgrade the common property in the Town Centres and Neighbourhood Centres to improve the shopping ambience for our residents.
Previously, shop owners paid 50% of the costs for items that directly benefit the shops, such as awnings, vertical blinds, while HDB and Town Council co-fund the other 50%. For rental shops, HDB and Town Council would bear 100% of the upgrading costs.
From Batch 7 ROS onwards, shop owners will only need to bear 20% of the upgrading cost, capped at $5,000. HDB and Town Councils will bear the remaining upgrading cost, up to $30,000 per shop.
For rental shops, HDB and Town Councils will continue to bear 100% of the upgrading cost, up to $35,000 per shop.
Further, to support HDB shops to kick-start their revitalisation efforts, HDB will provide a funding of up to $10,000 for MAs to appoint consultants to provide preliminary concepts/artists’ impressions of ROS upgrading.
MAs have also been actively organising promotional events to attract crowds to their town and neighbourhood centres. To assist the MAs, we co-fund up to 50% of the expenditure for such promotional events.
The total funding will be based on the number of MA members, with an annual cap of $500 per sold shop and $1,000 per rental shop. MAs need to plan at least 2 events per year in order to qualify for the funding. The funding can be used to pay for the events’ publicity and logistical costs.
The co-funding for promotional events will be limited to no more than 6 consecutive years, subject to application each year. For the 1st 3 years of co-funding, the funding will be capped at 50% of the expenditure, or 50% of the total funding for the year for each event, whichever is lower.
For the 4th to 6th years of the co-funding, the amount will be gradually reduced (4th year – 40%, 5th year – 30%, 6th year – 20%), subject to yearly application.
You are encouraged to upgrade your shop and business operations to complement the efforts made to upgrade the shopping facade and to carry out promotional events. If you renovate your shop in conjunction with the overall upgrading/ promotional efforts of the ROS scheme, you can enjoy a rent-free period of up to 1 month.
To enjoy this rent-free period, you need to be an MA member and have rented the shop from us for at least 6 years.
For town and neighbourhood centres without an existing MA, a Start-up Fund of $10,000 will be made available to encourage the retailers to organise themselves to form an MA. Retailers who are interested to form an MA can call Ms Wendy Sim, Principal Commercial Properties Manager at 6490 2933.
If you are our shop tenant, we have the following assistance measures for you.
Social enterprises which are members of The Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise (raiSE) can apply for direct allocation of an HDB shop or office space. In addition, SMEs members of raiSE can benefit from a 20% discount in monthly rental rates (up to a maximum discount of $12 per square metre) for the first 3 years of their tenancy. Interested Social Enterprises can contact raiSE at enquiries@raise.sg for more details.
Under a pilot scheme, businesses committed to hiring Persons with Disabilities for at least 20% of their manpower on the premises, will also be able to apply for direct allocation of HDB shops or office spaces. Similar to Social Enterprises, SMEs with inclusive hiring practices will also enjoy a 20% discount in monthly rental rates (up to a maximum discount of $12 per square metre) for the first 3 years of their tenancy). Interested businesses can contact SG Enable at opendoor@sgenable.sg for more details.
HDB and Enterprise Singapore have appointed NETS as the master acquirer to provide e-payment solution in coffee shops.
With this solution, coffee shop operators can accept payment from 20 payment schemes without needing to liaise with different individual payment schemes and acquirers. Payment transactions will be credited directly into your bank account within one day after the close of business for most payment schemes, and within two days for transactions via American Express, Mastercard and Visa. Transaction receipts will be consolidated into a single report for your convenience. The e-payment terminal can also be integrated with your point of sales system for better tracking of sales performance and consumer behaviour.
You will enjoy a low merchant discount rate (MDR) of 0.5% for monthly payment transactions, which is below the average industry MDR of 2% to 5%. Operators who sign up before August 2020 will enjoy a MDR of 0% and a waiver of the e-payment terminal rental fee.
To sign up, please contact NETS at 6274 1212 or CFCepayments@nets.com.sg.
We introduced the ROS scheme in November 2007 to help shops enhance their vibrancy and competitiveness. The scheme is made up of 3 components:
MAs can choose to take up all or a combination of the measures.
We aim to facilitate the upgrading of the overall shopping environment in our estates, and in the process, help our shops improve their business viability. Hence, you can enjoy a rent-free period of half a month when you fulfil either of these conditions:
To qualify, you must have rented the shop from us for at least 3 years and fall under the following use classes as defined by the Urban Redevelopment Authority - shop, restaurant, amusement centre, and pet shop. Each tenancy can enjoy the rent-free period a maximum of once every 3 years. When you submit the renovation plans and costs to us, the renovation plans should be holistic and give your shop a refreshing new look with:
Upon approval, you can proceed with the renovation works and will receive the rent-free period after the works are completed and verified.
You will receive a 75%, 50%, or 25% rental rebate if upgrading works are carried out in your shop, block, or precinct respectively.
In situations where upgrading works have caused business operations to stop completely, you will be given a 100% rental rebate.
We have reduced the cost to upgrade the electrical loading for our commercial premises. For electrical upgrading to 1 phase 60amps, the charge is $45 per amp, instead of the previous $85. To let businesses of different scales enjoy this benefit, we have also removed the minimum charge requirement.
As HDB builds more shops in new estates to serve our residents, we also help our retailers ease into their businesses in the newly constructed shops. For shop tenants of all newly constructed shops with tender/ e-bidding closing from 1 Aug 2017 onwards, they can enjoy staggered rents, at 80% of tendered rent in the first year and 90% in the second year, before the full tendered rent kicks in during the third year.
To assist our tenants who renew their tenancy for more than a year, and whose rents are increased by more than 10% at renewal, we will adjust the rents gradually over the renewal period.
% of Rent Increase
1st Year*
2nd Year
3rd Year^
≤ 10%
Market rent (no staggering)
Market rent
> 10% to 20%
Up 10% from existing rent
> 20%
Up 20% from existing rent
* 1st year if renewal is for a 2-year term ^ 2nd year if renewal is for a 2-year term
You can renew your tenancy for a 1, 2, or 3-year term. You can also choose shorter-term tenancies if you expect market rents to fall over time.
If you would like to scale down your business operations, you can rent out up to 50% of the shop space to 1 sub-tenant.
If you are in financial hardship, you can pay your arrears by instalments.
Since August 2002, you only need to notify us through a standard notification form and submit the administrative fee of $100 (excluding GST) if you would like to engage in an approved trade. Please note that fees for applications are different for rental shops and HDB shopping complexes. If a valuation is required, the MA will advise and collect the amount accordingly. An acknowledgement letter will be issued on the same day and you can start your new trade immediately.
Since 11 March 2011, you can change your trades to non-retail uses, such as offices, office-related trades, showroom, sale of take-away food, and single-operator family restaurant. However, you cannot change trades to uses that will inconvenience residents, such as eating houses and industrial trades.
The ex-gratia payment will be increased from $48,000 to $60,000 for tenants affected by land clearance or Selective En-bloc Redevelopment Scheme. Shop tenants eligible for ex-gratia include:
If you are a discharged bankrupt who would like to take up an HDB shop, you only need to pay a 1-month rental deposit. You also need not have a personal guarantor. Previously, you would have to pay a 2-month deposit and have 2 personal guarantors.
Besides flat owners, commercial retailers can also benefit from HIP. HIP will help you with common maintenance matters related to ageing premises. HIP works are carried out in a systematic and comprehensive manner to minimise any inconvenience.
There are 2 main categories of works under the HIP: essential improvements and optional improvements.
Essential improvements include:
Optional improvements include upgrading of toilets/ bathrooms, and replacement of the entrance door and gate, and the refuse chute hopper.
If you are an HDB shop owner, we have the following assistance measures for you.
Even if you purchased your shop at a longer lease, you can convert to 30-year leases to reduce your operating costs under the Sale of Tenanted Shops Scheme.
We will buy back your shop for the balance lease and sell the shops at 30-year leases to you. The buy-back price and selling price for the shops are based on the lower of the net original price, or the prevailing market price (less discount if applicable). You will not be eligible for this scheme if you purchased your shop from the open market or by tender (Sale of Shops Scheme).
Learn more about how Enterprise Singapore can help your business grow.
Enterprise Singapore is the government agency championing enterprise development. The agency works with committed companies to build capabilities, innovate and internationalise.
It also supports the growth of Singapore as a hub for global trading and startups, and builds trust in Singapore’s products and services through quality and standards.
Find out how Enterprise Singapore can work with you to grow your business.
Here is a list of HDB shopping and office complexes.
You can rent a unit from our tenant or shop owner. These are the application instructions and conditions.
Here are details on the criteria and procedure to take over an HDB commercial unit from an existing tenant.
