HDB will selectively acquire privately owned heartland shops if there is need to 'inject' supply: Sun Xueling

HDB has the option of selectively acquiring privately owned HDB shops if there is a need to meet demand in existing estates, Senior Minister of State for National Development Sun Xueling said in Parliament on Wednesday (Sept 24).

She was responding to questions from MPs on efforts to keep rents of HDB shops affordable.

Sun said that 90 per cent of units directly leased by HDB have remained largely unchanged over the last five years.

But the median rental for heartland shops held by private landlords has doubled in the past year, according to Urban Redevelopment Authority’s Realis data released on Sept 1.

From $3.51 per sq ft (psf) in the second quarter of 2024, it has gone up to $7.34 psf in the second quarter of 2025 — the highest rental for privately held HDB shops since 1999.

There are about 740 privately owned HDB shops sold on 30-year leases, of which more than 80 per cent have less than 10 years of lease remaining, and these shops will progressively be returned to HDB and tenanted out, Sun said.

About 7,700 privately held HDB shops sold on 99-year leases still have more than 30 years of lease remaining.

“We are aware that per square foot rents for privately owned HDB shops have seen a steep increase recently,” she said.

Sun added that HDB will “inject new retail supply” by selectively acquiring privately held HDB shops if needed.

In her reply, she also touched on the rental rates for medical facilities.

In June, AsiaOne reported that a general practitioner was awarded the tender for a HDB shop in Tampines after submitting a $52,000 bid.

Sun said that the average rent per square foot was $10.40 in 2020, which rose to $22.70 last year and $28.50 in the first half of 2025.

She said that since May, HDB and the Ministry of Health (MOH) have been piloting the use of the price-quality method in tenders for GP clinics. 

Under the pilot, the tender price — or the rental bid — will account for 30 per cent of the scoring criteria, and will be evaluated by HDB. 

The quality of the tender proposal will account for the remaining 70 per cent, and will be assessed by MOH through factors such as whether multi-disciplinary care will be offered, manpower quality and operating hours. 

The first tender was awarded to a GP clinic in Bartley Beacon at $16.70 psf, Sun said, adding that it was lower than the average awarded bid of $35.50 psf for designated GP clinic tenders in new housing projects awarded in the past three years. 

As for the rental of sublet units, she said that HDB does not collect such data which are part of contractual agreements between main and sub tenants. 

Acknowledging that there are concerns that sublet rents could increase “more significantly” than what HDB charges the main tenants, Sun added: "We will continue to monitor the situation and explore appropriate ways to provide more information to all stakeholders."

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chingshijie@asiaone.com