HDB flat owners turn 'hoteliers'
Practice is illegal and owners risk fine or losing their flats, says board
By Mavis Toh
ROOMS in some Housing Board (HDB) flats are being marketed like hotel rooms to tourists looking to save money on accommodation.
About 50 posts can be found in room rental and classifieds sites online, offering such rooms. As with hotels, rates are higher on weekends. Housekeeping is available, for an extra fee, as is an airport pick-up.
Tourists on short-term visits have their pick of rooms across the island - from Kallang and Geylang to Jurong and Sengkang. The posts state the location, 'room rate' and facilities; some even come with photographs to give interested parties a preview.
The problem: It is all illegal.
When contacted, HDB said its flats are not to be let out to tourists, and home owners who do this risk being fined and served compulsory acquisition orders.
The spokesman said the board has received queries from flat owners about subletting rooms to tourists, but has advised them against doing it.
'A tourist's length of stay is usually short, and the turnover of such 'occupiers' is expected to be high. This may lead to high human traffic to and from the flat, which will disrupt the pleasant living environment and ambience in our HDB estates,' the spokesman said.
The board added that subletting of rooms to 'non-approved sub-tenants' like tourists is an infringement of the lease and the board can take stern action through a fine or even a compulsory acquisition of the flat.
Asked whether any home owner has been penalised for this so far, HDB said the figure was not available.
Meanwhile, some home owners are making money on the side this way.
On one website, a home owner said he was looking to let three of the four bedrooms in his 1,184-sq-ft apartment in the west, which he shares with his wife. They have no children.
In their flat, the rooms set aside for paying guests are even named - Belgium Suite, Snow White Suite and Little Swedish, which he claims are as clean as those in 'a typical five-star hotel'.
He charges a daily rate of between $52 and $82. His 'guests' pay a cleaning fee of up to $132, and $28 for an airport pick-up.
Payments, due before check-in, are only in cash or by bank transfer.
When The Straits Times asked whether rooms were available for the week, the owner said it was a full house.
'Recently it's been quite packed, perhaps because of F1,' he said, adding that he has been letting out the rooms to supplement the family income for three years.
Beyond the money, he said, it has been interesting getting to know people from other cultures; he has had guests from Japan, France and Germany, all of whom booked his rooms online.
Over in Jurong West, a part-time tutor is making available two bedrooms in her maisonette. Bookings are for at least seven days, at $50 a day.
Many other advertisements to which The Straits Times responded were placed by owners or occupiers from India, the Philippines and China, who target their fellow countrymen here to look for work or on holiday.
A Hong Kong woman who stayed in one such 'vacation home' in Redhill this year said she was put off by the cost of a hotel room.
'The rooms in Singapore are at least $200 per night - too expensive for a short break in a nearby country. I paid only $60 a night for the flat,' said the 26-year-old, who wanted to be known only as Ms Shum.
For that price, she said, she got a clean room and even tips on the sights she should catch while in town.
mavistoh@sph.com.sg
A room in Bukit Batok advertised on a website. Often these ads target tourists - a move which the HDB says is an infringement of the lease and could lead to a fine or even a compulsory acquisition of the flat. -- PHOTO: GUMTREE.SG
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