SINGAPORE — 99 per cent of sold HDB shops are owned by Singaporeans or Singapore Permanent Residents, therefore foreign ownership makes up the remaining very small proportion, said Mr Desmond Lee.
Mr Lee who is the Minister of National Development said this in his written reply to the Oral Parliamentary Question filed by Workers’ Party Member of Parliament Gerald Giam on Tuesday (29 Nov).
Mr Giam had asked for the number of HDB shophouses that are currently not operating businesses in their shophouse and are renting out their shophouse and of these, how many are foreigners.
The Housing and Development Board (HDB) sold shops in the 1980s and 1990s to promote entrepreneurship and ownership of commercial properties.
HDB has discontinued the sale of HDB shops in 1998 and rents out shops to businesses directly, for better trade curation and to ensure the affordability of essential goods and services for residents.
Mr Lee shared that there are about 8,500 of the nearly 15,200 HDB shops are sold today.
“As HDB shops were sold purely on commercial terms with no government subsidies, the shops are treated in a similar manner to private commercial properties and shop owners need not inform HDB when they rent out their shops,” said Mr Lee.
Therefore, HDB does not have data on whether the private owners rent out their shops in part or entirely.
According to the recently concluded Heartland Shops Study (HSS), of the businesses surveyed at sold shops, 25% were owner-operated while the remaining 75% were rented out.
Based on HDB’s records at the point of sale or resale of the sold shop, about 99 per cent of sold HDB shops are owned by Singaporeans or Singapore Permanent Residents.
“Foreign ownership makes up the remaining very small proportion,” said Mr Lee.
According to the definition by the Immigration and Checkpoint Authority, a PR refers to a foreigner who has been granted permanent residence status which allows him/her to reside in Singapore on a permanent basis.
Thus it is puzzling why Mr Lee defines PR ownership as non-foreign ownership and lumps the figures of Singaporeans and PRs together, giving a somewhat meaningless reply to Mr Giam’s question.
