HDB shop rules are not the flat permit

Last updated 31 October 2026.

Search “HDB renovation permit” and the first pages are about flats: the form on the HDB app, Saturday rules written for homes, and a permit fee people quote from a renovation blog. An HDB shop, whether rented or sold, is in a different handbook. The Renovation Guide for Shop Tenant/Owner, dated December 2025, is issued by the Commercial Asset Management Department. HDB says the guide is current at issuance and can change, and that it does not override the tenancy agreement or the memorandum of lease. If the PDF and a letter from the branch disagree, the letter wins. This page describes the guide as it stood when we read it on 31 October 2026.

People also ask whether shophouses are under HDB. Some neighbourhood shops are HDB commercial premises. A conserved shophouse on a private title is not, and URA’s conservation rules sit on that building. The way to tell is the title and HDB’s own correspondence, not the presence of a roller shutter. We are not a property agency and we do not look up titles. If you are unsure, say so before anyone drills. Applying a flat permit to a private shophouse, or a shophouse’s conservation rule to an HDB shop, is how the wrong drawing gets built.

People also ask what a shop renovation costs, how much the permit costs, and how long approval takes. There is no shop-renovation package and no permit fee in our catalogue. HDB’s guide mentions a fee when additional electrical load is granted, and it does not print the amount. We will not copy a flat-permit fee into that blank. On time, the public A&A page says a lodgement is likely to take 7 working days and an A&A application 14 working days, subject to review. The December 2025 guide’s table describes exemption-list items as a lodgement to notify HDB with instant approval, and you still obtain the Notice of Alteration before work starts. Those are different sentences on different HDB pages. Read the one that matches your item. Do not add the two clocks together and call it three weeks.

Curtains, blinds and roller shades are not part of this booking. A roller shutter is a different product and stays on the shutter page.

Sort the work before you sort the contractor. HDB says fitting-out needs prior approval under the tenancy or the memorandum of lease. A qualified person, a registered architect or a professional engineer, submits what is not exempt, through CORENET, for clearance from HDB, BCA and FSSD. Nothing starts until those clearances exist, and copies go back to HDB for record. The contractor for alteration and addition is to be on the HDB Directory of Renovation Contractors. V On Construction Pte. Ltd. UEN 201611708H is the company named on this site for that permit path. Homey Furnishing invoices the permit-exempt visit. It does not submit CORENET.

The exemption list is not a free pass. The guide says those items generally do not affect structural safety, or they sit under FSSD directly, such as partitioning and fire compartmentation, so they are not submitted on CORENET. You still lodge the Notice of Alteration at go.gov.sg/hdb-noa-application before you start, and you display it outside for the whole job. The guide’s own examples of minor works that need the notice are laying floor or wall finishes, installing shelves or racks, and replacing doors or windows. “Minor” in that sentence means “not a CORENET set”, not “no paper”.

The town council enters when the fixing leaves the unit. Retractable awnings, lightings, signboards and LPG on common property need town council clearance first. External wall paint follows the town council colour. Facade walls without a corridor in front follow the building colour. A different colour is only described for the recessed main entrance, up to 3 m each side, and for recessed side and rear entrances. Interior racks do not go to the town council. Asking the town council to approve a new kitchen layout wastes the week HDB was going to use.

Write the list in two columns: repair of a fitting that is already there, and new work. A shutter limit, a glass-door alignment and a silicone joint can be the printed rows on the shop handyman page if that is all they are. A new floor, a new rack and a new door are the notice. A wall coming out is the qualified person. Do not ask one contractor to price the three columns as “shop reno”.

Add the trade. Food, laundry, a gym and a cakeshop have extra lines in the guide: grease traps and exhaust for an eating house, a PE letter for gym loads, exhaust drawings for a cakeshop. A minimart is not a gym. Say the use. If the use is changing, HDB wants in-principle change-of-use approval first, and a PE if the new use loads the floor more than the original design. If the fire-code purpose group changes, the guide points you to SCDF as well. A music school and a minimart are the example HDB gives of two purpose groups.

Pick the column before you pick the contractor.

Questions a shop should ask

Ask the contractor which column they are pricing.

1. Is this premises an HDB shop, a private shophouse, or both in the way the title is unclear?
2. Is the item on HDB’s exemption list, or does it need CORENET?
3. Where is the Notice of Alteration?
4. Is the contractor on the Directory of Renovation Contractors for alteration and addition?
5. Does any fixing land on common property?
6. What is the approved electrical load, and is a fee for extra load still unknown?
7. Is the use changing in a way that changes the fire-code purpose group?
8. Are you being quoted a permit fee? Ask which HDB page prints it.

A shutter does not tell you the statute.

General renovation that does not generate noise, including plastering, screed, painting and similar work, is 9am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday. Sunday and public holidays are off. Noisy work, including demolishing walls, removing finishes, cutting tiles and excessive drilling, is 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. It is also kept off the eve of New Year’s Day, Chinese New Year, Deepavali, Hari Raya Puasa and Christmas Day. Workers need personal protective equipment. Demolition workers are to be certified by the BCA Academy. The site is hoarded. Those are the guide’s conditions on the registered contractor, not a slogan.

Debris stays out of the staircase, the rainwater pipe, the sewer, the refuse chute and the pneumatic system. It is not left in the corridor overnight. A skip on a car park needs the branch’s approval, payment, and a notice on the skip. Water, electricity and gas accounts are opened before fitting-out. Water pipe services are a PUB licensed plumber. Gas and electrical work are an EMA licensed worker. Windows that are installed, retrofitted, repaired or replaced are a BCA-approved window contractor listed with HDB, and the guide states a fine of up to S$10,000 and a jail term of up to one year, or both, if a window falls for lack of maintenance.

An eating house maintains its grease trap and exhaust and keeps the receipts. The hood and duct are degreased at least every 12 months by an exhaust specialist. A gym needs a PE letter on the floor load and pays for strengthening if the original design is too light. A shelter alteration, including aircon, needs FSSD first. Exit lights, alarms, hose reels and extinguishers are maintained to FSSD’s standard. None of those sentences is a price. The prices, where we have them, are on the fitting pages.

“How do I know if my contractor is HDB approved?” The guide points at the Directory of Renovation Contractors for alteration and addition. Check the directory. A handyman invoice from Homey Furnishing is not that listing. “How to report renovation without a permit?” is an enforcement question. The guide’s feedback route is go.gov.sg/hdb-write-to-us. We do not run a report hotline and we do not inspect a neighbour’s unit.

“What are the permitted renovation hours for HDB?” has two answers, and people paste the flat one onto a shop. Use the shop table above for a shop. The flat page on this site remains the flat page. “What is addition and alteration?” on the commercial page is the CORENET set: drawings, a qualified person, and clearances. It is not a synonym for every screw.

Periodic structural inspection of a commercial block is described as once every five years. Cladding on a column may have to come off for the engineer, at the tenant’s cost. Do not box a column and call it joinery. Works that hack beams or columns, alter the external reinforced-concrete facade, convert living quarters without approval, or use flickering sign lights are on the guide’s do-not list.

The sources are HDB’s shop renovation pages and the December 2025 PDF, plus BCA where a window or a structural question appears, and EMA where the electrical load does. SCDF enters when the purpose group changes or when fire safety works are part of the fit-out. This page does not restate the Fire Code. The fire guide does.

Homey Furnishing is not the town council and not HDB. We do not grant the NOA, we do not approve a colour, and we do not charge a permit fee of our own. V On Construction is the directory contractor this site names when the work is the permit path. A disagreement about price or workmanship is, in HDB’s own words, a private matter between tenant and contractor, with CASE, the Small Claims Tribunals or the courts as the routes the guide mentions. We do not offer to sit as the tribunal.

Official pages

• HDB renovation guide for shop tenants and owners, December 2025
• HDB: addition and alteration works for commercial premises
• HDB: renovating a shop or office
• BCA: building works that do not need plan approval
• EMA: engaging a licensed electrical worker

Homey Furnishing Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 202018148K), 27 Mandai Estate, #06-10 Innovation Place, Singapore 729931, invoices the permit-exempt visit. V On Construction Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 201611708H), on the HDB Directory of Renovation Contractors, invoices hacking, a new layout, and an HDB renovation permit. Homey Furnishing is not a property agency, not a CEA practice, and not a vector-control operator.

How you're charged

A job that already has a sentence on HomeySG uses that sentence. The hour is not added on top of a band unless the written scope says so. There is no fuel surcharge and no published night premium except the mall overnight row. A shop does not inherit a flat’s price just because the fitting looks similar.

Reading the guide is free. A fitting that matches a printed row uses that row. A renovation, a permit fee and a town-council colour change are quote on inspection or HDB’s own bill. We do not add a “paperwork” price.

Ways to keep the bill smaller

• Separate repairs from new finishes before you ask for one number.
• Lodge the notice before the noisy day is booked. A turned-away crew is the expensive hour.
• Do not ask the town council to approve an interior layout.
• Do not pay a permit fee you cannot find on an HDB page.

WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630.

The rules are HDB’s. The dollars below are only fittings this site already prices.

Anything not in that table is quote on inspection.

WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630. The reply uses a band already printed on HomeySG, or it says quote on inspection.

• Repairs inside an HDB shop
• Shelves, which need the notice
• External colour
• Who pays is the lease, not HDB’s guide
• Signs, still unpriced
• A maintenance contract is not a permit