M’sian Who is Looking For Rental Room in S’pore Gets Offered Partitioned Space for $550/Mth

Landlords are on a race to the bottom. I hope no one takes umbrage at that comment.

First it’s evicting healthcare workers from Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), and now this.

Man Offered Partitioned Space Instead of Room

The incident happened to a 25-year-old Malaysian man known as Fvyn, who is searching for rental accommodation in Singapore as he starts his work as a hairstylist this July.

Last week, he made a query on the price of a single room, in a rental listing near Khatib MRT. 

The landlord replied that the room had been rented to someone else, but instead offered him a “partitioned room” for $550, including utilities.

Fortunately, Fvyn asked for a photo to clarify what the “room” was like—and, apparently, it was nothing more than a haphazardly demarcated space separated from the living room by curtains.

He even checked with the landlord in disbelief.

Yep. That’s the “partitioned room”, alright.

According to MustShareNews, such an arrangement is not only ridiculous but also illegal: landlords are only permitted to rent out rooms designated as bedrooms. 

If these regulations are contravened, the right of the landlord to lease out rooms may be revoked.

Fvyn took to Facebook to voice his indignation on Saturday (8 May), with a simple caption, translated from Mandarin as:

“Not targeted at any landlord; I just want to ask, is this reasonable? They are even charging $550 for it.”

You can check out the Facebook post and see the horrid conditions for yourself. Some have even commented that it looked like a hastily set-up sickbay in a hospital.

This is not where you want to live.

Rental Regulations Galore

There are, in fact, rather strict regulations on renting out HDB flats, according to the Housing & Development Board (HDB) itself.

Perhaps the most eccentric among them is the Non-Citizen Quota for Renting Out of Flat, apparently to “maintain a good ethnic mix in HDB estates”, whatever that means.

This quota applies to all non-citizens who are not Malaysians, whom HDB believes to have “close cultural and historical similarities with Singaporeans”.

The quota is placed at 8% per neighbourhood and 11% per block; once the quota for non-citizen tenants is reached, the neighbourhood or block cannot welcome any more tenants who are not Singaporean or Malaysian.

The period of lease is also under regulation. A flat or bedroom must be leased out for at least six months, and a maximum of three years—unless, of course, one of the tenants is non-Singaporean and non-Malaysian. The maximum rental period is then reduced to two years.

Did some foreigner steal the HDB director’s parking lot?

Feature Image: Facebook (Fvyn Hedkandee)