How to rent out your HDB flat without an agent in 9 easy steps

If you are contemplating to rent out your spare room or even lease out the entire HDB flat, you have come to the right place! It is actually very easy to D.I.Y without much hassle!

So here is how to rent out your HDB flat in nine easy steps!

STEP 1. CHECK WHETHER IF YOU HAVE FULFILLED THE CONDITIONS FOR RENTING OUT YOUR HDB

a. Citizenship

Only Singapore Citizen's flat owners can rent out the entire flat. The Singapore Permanent Resident flat owners are only allowed to lease out the spare room.

b. Minimum Occupation Period (MOP)

Meet the MOP of 3 or 5 years. If your flat is non-subsidised (purchased from the open market without a housing grant) and purchased before 30 August 2010, the MOP is 3 years.

Tip: Print the confirmation of your eligibility to rent out the whole flat through My HDBPage. (Log in with your SingPass and go to: My Flat > Purchased Flat - Renting Out of Flat). For more details, refer to the HDB's guide here.

STEP 2. FIND OUT THE OCCUPANCY CAP AND THE MAXIMUM RENTAL PERIOD 

a. Occupancy cap

Take note of the occupancy cap when bedrooms are rented out.

For more details, refer to the HDB's press release here.

b. Rental period

The minimum rental period for each tenant must be 6 months per application.

Note: Rent out your flat or bedroom on a short-term basis shorter than 6 months is illegal.

You can rent out to a maximum of:

a. 3 years if all the tenants are Singaporeans or Malaysians.

b. 2 years for non-Malaysian non-citizen tenants (Singapore Permanent Residents and foreigners)

STEP 3. DETERMINE WHO CAN BE YOUR TENANTS 

a. Non-citizen quota

Find out whether if the non-citizen quota for your neighbour/block has been reached. Once the quota is reached, you can only rent to Singaporeans and Malaysians.

Note: The non-citizen quota does not apply to the rental of bedrooms.

Tip: Here is the HDB e-Service to check the non-citizen quota. The e-Service can also be accessed via the HDB Map Services.

b. Eligibility

Persons who wish to rent HDB flats must not be holders of invalid employment, S passes, work permits, student, dependent or long-term social visit passes. These passes must have a validity period of at least 6 months.

Note: Work permit holders from the construction, manufacturing, marine, and process sectors must be Malaysians and that tourists are not allowed as tenants!

Tip: Here is the list of sites for you to find out if your tenant's documents are valid:

a. NRIC, Student Pass or Long Term Social Visit Pass

b. Work permit

c. S Pass or Employment Pass

STEP 4. DECIDE ON THE RENTAL PRICE 

Find out and determine how much your flat or spare room can fetch in the current market conditions.

Note: The following factors that affect the rental price of your home:

a. Distance from transport nodes & amenities

b. Distance from noisy places

c. Quality of furnishings

Tip: Refer to past HDB rental transaction median prices or market rental statistics on the HDB website (applies for whole flat rentals only).

STEP 5. MARKET YOUR HDB AND ARRANGE FOR VIEWINGS 

Take photos of your HDB and advertise your HDB rental to potential tenants through free platforms such as forums or even Carousell!

Try to "batch" as many potential tenants together for the viewings to minimise the trips for viewings. In addition, when the potential tenants see that there is competition, they are willing to pay more.

Tip: Make sure that the photos are attractive and be as detailed as possible in your description.

Remember to include the size, the number of bedrooms, bathrooms and whether if the kitchen is an open kitchen.

Include nearby transportation facilities such as MRT, LRT or bus interchange, shopping malls, hawker centres, 24 hours supermarkets and more.

Indicate how your unit is different from others; such as windy unblocked, park or sea view, newly renovated, a corner unit or if the unit is located on a high floor.

Include in the types of kitchen appliances and furniture which you are including for rental too.

STEP 6. NEGOTIATE AND MAKE AN OFFER

Once the potential tenants express their desire to take up your offer, you should consider getting them to commit before you decide to turn down other potential tenants.

To make a formal offer, you can issue a Letter of Intent (LOI) and obtain a good faith deposit from the would-be tenant to secure the unit.

LETTER OF INTENT (LOI)

LOI is a formal offer made to the would-be tenant and the Tenancy Agreement (TA) contract will be drafted according to the LOI.

It includes the following terms of offer such as the price, duration, amount of security deposit, requests for appliances, furniture, etc

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GOOD FAITH DEPOSIT 

To accept the LOI, the would-be tenant must pay the good faith deposit of 1 month of rent. This will subsequently be used to pay the first rental month or be used as the security deposit once the TA is signed.

Tip: You get to keep the good faith deposit should the would-be tenant decides to back out on the officer after the LOI is signed.

However, if you are the one who wish to retract the offer, you need to return the good faith deposit.

Once the LOI is signed, you have to stop marketing the HDB to other potential tenants.

STEP 7. DRAFT AND SIGN THE TENANCY AGREEMENT (TA) WITH THE INVENTORY LIST 

Proceed to get the TA signed by you and the would-be tenant, in the presence of a witness.

Turn the good faith deposit as the security deposit and get the advance rental of 1 month from the tenant.

Aside from the TA, you need to list down the list of fixtures (ceiling lights, air con etc) and furnishings (sofa, appliances etc) that is to be handed over to the tenant in the inventory list.

Submit the relevant details of the tenants under your MyHDB page in the HDB page.

Tip: The security deposit is meant to pay for any damages or when the tenant defaults on the rental payment. You have to return the rest of the security deposit at the end of the lease.

STEP 8. ENSURE THAT THE TENANT PAYS FOR STAMP DUTY AND APPLIES FOR THE UTILITY 

The rental stamp duty is borne by the tenant and it can be paid online at IRAS.

This has to be paid within 2 weeks after the TA is signed and in effect.

The tenant has to prove that the rental stamp study has been paid by providing you a copy of the original certificate of stamp duty.

The application for the utility can be done at the Singapore Power.

Tip: A demand note will be issued when the payment of Stamp Duty is not made by the due date. For more details refer here.

STEP 9. HANDOVER AND MONITOR FOR LATE OR DEFAULT RENTAL PAYMENT 

The date of the handover of your HDB should be at the commencement and the start of the rental period.

You should pass all the HDB and mailbox keys to your tenant. For the entire rental tenure, monitor for any late or default payments.

This article was first published in Renonation.