How small a room would you accept to save on rent?
For some tenants in Singapore, the answer is very small indeed.
CNA reported on 18 August that renters are paying about S$500 to S$900 a month for so-called “pocket rooms”, which can include storerooms, utility rooms, bomb shelters and spaces originally intended for domestic helpers.
CNA found around 40 such listings on PropertyGuru as of 17 August. Some were identifiable by features such as bomb shelter vents, circuit breaker boxes or the absence of windows.
But whether a landlord is actually allowed to turn such a space into a tenant’s bedroom depends on the type of property.
One Tenant Pays S$700 for a 1.8m by 1.6m Room
One renter interviewed by CNA, 48-year-old Jao Santos, lives in a private condominium in Geylang.
His room measures about 1.8m by 1.6m, or 2.9 sq m. He pays S$700 a month, plus about S$30 in utilities.
Santos previously rented a larger room for S$600, but told CNA that he was prepared to sacrifice space to have air-conditioning.
Another tenant, identified only as Ms S, pays S$600 a month including utilities for a condominium room near Great World City MRT station.
Her space measures about 1.8m by 1m, with a 1.6m-long bed. CNA reported that shortly after she moved in, some of her belongings had to be kept on the bed itself.
For her, the trade-off was location and cost. She had previously been paying S$4,000 for an entire unit and wanted to cut her expenses while remaining close to work.
So Can an HDB Storeroom or Bomb Shelter Be Rented Out as a Bedroom?
For HDB flats, the rule is relatively straightforward.
HDB states that only bedrooms that were originally constructed by HDB may be rented out. Other parts of the flat, including spaces that have been partitioned into rooms, cannot be used as bedrooms for tenants.
That means an HDB owner cannot simply convert a living room, storeroom or household shelter into another tenant bedroom.
Owners also need HDB’s approval when renting out bedrooms and must comply with HDB’s other rental conditions.
Private Condos Have Different Rules
Private residential properties do not have the same HDB rule restricting rental to bedrooms that were part of the original layout.
However, that does not mean landlords have complete freedom to divide a condo into as many tiny rooms as they want.
URA says internal partitioning can generally be carried out without planning permission only if the home continues to function as one self-contained residential unit, with communal facilities such as its living or dining area and kitchen remaining intact.
If the works effectively create new residential sub-units within the original home, they are not exempt from planning permission.
There are also occupancy limits. Private homes below 90 sq m can house a maximum of six unrelated people. Properties of at least 90 sq m may currently register to house up to eight unrelated people under a temporary relaxation lasting until 31 December 2028.
All occupants of private residential properties must also stay for at least three consecutive months.
For household shelters, owners still have to comply with civil defence requirements. SCDF says the shelter’s protective door, structural walls, floor and ceiling cannot be tampered with, while the door and ventilation openings must remain operational.
So a private property’s storeroom or household shelter is not automatically barred from being rented out under the same rule that applies to HDB flats, but the specific arrangement still has to comply with planning, occupancy, building management and other applicable safety requirements.
Why Would Landlords Create Such Small Rooms?
There is a financial incentive.
Property analyst Nicholas Mak told CNA that a private apartment divided into multiple rental spaces could potentially generate about S$5,000 to S$6,000 in rent each month, compared with roughly S$3,000 if the entire unit were rented to one tenant or household.
According to his estimate, the smallest rooms can also command rental rates per square foot that are more than 30 per cent higher than larger rooms or whole units.
The market remains relatively niche, but PropertyGuru told CNA that listings for rooms measuring 100 sq ft or less had increased by more than half over the previous five years. The platform had about 9,000 room-rental listings across HDB flats, private apartments and landed homes as of mid-August.
For renters, the attraction is fairly simple: paying less without necessarily having to move far away from work or transport links.
The compromise is that your “room” might previously have been where someone kept the vacuum cleaner.
