Eligibility to rent a flat or bedroom

Citizenship

You must be any of the following to rent a flat or bedroom as a tenant:

Singapore Citizen
Singapore Permanent Resident
Non-citizen legally residing in Singapore who holds an Employment Pass, S Pass, Work Permit, Student Pass, Dependant Pass, or Long-Term Social Visit Pass. The pass must have a validity period of at least 6 months as at the date of application by the flat owners:
- Work Permit holders from the construction, marine, and process sectors must be Malaysians. Work Permit holders from the manufacturing sector must also be Malaysians if they are renting a whole HDB flat
- Tourists are not allowed to rent any HDB flat/ bedroom

Companies renting the flat or bedroom for your employees must ensure that the individuals meet our eligibility conditions for tenants.

Tenancy and property ownership status

You must not be a tenant of a public rental HDB flat or owner of other HDB flats unless you are:

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

You must not be the owner of an Executive Condominium unit where the 5-year minimum occupation period has not been met.

Guidelines

Proof of ownership of the flat

You should visit the flat you intend to rent and ensure that the person you are dealing with is the rightful owner of the flat. You can do so by requesting for documentary proof of the flat’s ownership.

If you are renting the whole flat, ask the flat owner to show you the printout of HDB’s confirmation of his eligibility to rent out the flat. Flat owners may print the confirmation of their eligibility to rent out the flat from MyHDB Page (log in with Singpass and go to: My Flat> Purchased Flat - Renting Out > Renting Out of Flat).

HDB’s approval to rent out the flat or bedroom

You should ensure that the flat owner has our approval to rent out the flat or bedroom to you. You can ask the flat owner to show you a copy of the approval letter from us, and give you a copy of the terms and conditions of the approval for your reference. For rental of bedrooms, flat owners must continue to live in the flat during the rental period. To protect your interest, you should also include a condition in the rental contract to specify that the contract is valid only if the flat owner obtains our approval to rent out the flat or bedroom.

In addition, you may ask the flat owner to provide you with the printout of HDB’s confirmation that you are a registered tenant. Flat owners can print HDB’s confirmation letter, after logging in with Singpass using our e-Service, via the following steps:

Renting Out of Whole Flat > Enquiry on Tenants
Renting Out of Bedroom(s) > Enquiry on Tenants

Check if you have been included as an authorised tenant

When flat owners apply for our approval to rent out the whole flat or their bedroom(s) with us, they must provide us with the particulars of their tenants. These particulars will be updated in our system within 2 days from the date of approval of the rental. Only authorised tenants are allowed to stay in the flat. You may use our e-Service to check if the flat owners have included you as an authorised tenant.

Eligibility for Renting a Flat or a Bedroom from Open Market