Handyman work in an HDB shop, not a flat
An HDB shop is not an HDB flat. A hinge, a shutter limit and a silicone joint can use the bands already printed. Laying a new floor, installing racks, or replacing a door needs the Notice of Alteration HDB describes for commercial premises. A full shop renovation price is quote on inspection.
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Photo: Wzhkevin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Toa Payoh Central on 16 April 2022. It is a place, not a HomeySG repair and not a permit.
How it works
- 1
Send one photo per fitting and name the premises: HDB shop, heartland mall, strata shop or shophouse.
- 2
We match the photo to a row already printed on HomeySG, or we say quote on inspection.
- 3
Permission is named before tools come out. An NOA, a mall permit to work, or a licensed trade is not added after the fact.
- 4
You confirm the lines. We do not design the shop, apply for a licence, or sign a fire certificate.
What this job is
Last updated 31 October 2026.
A neighbourhood shop under an HDB block fails in ordinary ways: the shutter stops halfway, the glass door scrapes, the pantry tap weeps, a shelf bracket pulls out of a hollow partition. The search that follows is often “HDB renovation”, and the results are written for flats. The flat permit, the Saturday drilling rule for homes, and the three-year toilet-finish rule are the wrong paper. HDB publishes a separate renovation guide for shop tenants and owners, dated December 2025, from the Commercial Asset Management Department. That guide is the one this page follows.
The guide draws a line the flat pages do not. Under the tenancy agreement for a rental shop, and the memorandum of lease for a sold shop, fitting-out needs HDB’s prior approval. A qualified person, a registered architect or a professional engineer, submits renovation that is not on the exemption list through CORENET, and clearances include HDB, BCA and FSSD. Minor works that HDB still wants notified, including laying floor or wall finishes, installing shelves or racks, and replacing doors or windows, need a Notice of Alteration lodged at go.gov.sg/hdb-noa-application before anyone starts. The NOA is displayed outside the premises for the whole job.
Homey Furnishing does the repair that matches a row already printed: a showcase lock, hinge and track at S$250 to S$550, a shutter track and limits at S$250 to S$480, one mouldy silicone zone at S$80 to S$150, a small hole patch at S$150 to S$280. Those are maintenance of a fitting that is already there, or a patch of a finish that is already there. They are not permission to lay a new floor or to bolt a new gondola run. If the photo is a new installation, the reply asks for the NOA first. If the photo is a wall coming out, or a new layout, that is V On Construction on the HDB Directory of Renovation Contractors, and the price is quote on inspection. We do not print a shop-renovation package, because HDB’s guide does not publish one and neither does this catalogue.
Curtains, blinds and roller shades are not part of this booking. A roller shutter is a different product and stays on the shutter page.
How the work is done
The visit starts with the fitting, not with a call-out that covers “the shop”. A shutter that rubs is the shutter page: track and limits S$250 to S$480, a spring or motor overhaul S$580 to S$1,350, a folding grille S$260 to S$520. A fire shutter stays able to drop. Pinning it open is the failure, not the repair. A glass door that scrapes is aligned at S$250 to S$420. Oil at the pivot is a floor spring at S$450 to S$850, including the brands named on that page. A washroom door that must close itself, where the closer is the fault, is the commercial closer page. A home closer price is not printed, and it is not borrowed for a shop.
Hours are on the shop guide, not on the flat guide. General renovation, including plastering, laying screed, painting and other work that does not generate noise, is 9am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday. Sunday and public holidays are not working days. Noisy work, including demolishing walls, removing wall or floor finishes, cutting tiles, and excessive drilling or hammering, is 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday only. It is also kept off the eve of New Year’s Day, Chinese New Year, Deepavali, Hari Raya Puasa and Christmas Day. A handyman who turns up with a breaker on Saturday morning because a flat page allowed something else has already breached the shop rule.
Debris stays inside the unit and leaves daily. HDB forbids discharge into the staircase, the rainwater downpipe, the sanitary system, a refuse chute, or the pneumatic waste system. A skip on the car park needs the branch’s approval and a displayed notice. We do not leave offcuts in the corridor overnight and call it the town council’s problem. The town council’s actual role, in the same guide, is narrower: retractable awnings, lightings, signboards and LPG on common property need town council clearance before they are fixed there. Interior shelves do not. External wall paint of the shop follows the town council colour scheme, with only a limited recess at the entrance allowed to differ. That painting rule is the painting page. A fascia sign is the existing signage page, and it has no mounting price.
| What you should see at the end | What a sloppy visit leaves | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| The existing hinge, track or closer works, and the leaf still latches | A wedge under a door, or a shutter pinned up | The wedge hides a failed spring. A pinned fire shutter cannot drop |
| New racks or a new floor finish wait for the NOA on the shutter | Shelves drilled on a verbal “it is only minor” | HDB’s guide calls those items minor and still requires the notice |
| Common-corridor fixings are left for the town council | An awning bracket in the five-foot way | The corridor is not the tenancy |
| Debris leaves the same day, inside a permitted skip if one was approved | Tiles in the chute or the drain | The shop guide names those discharges as forbidden |
How to scope it
Label the album before you ask for one price. “Shutter stops” is a shutter row. “Glass door scrapes” is the glass row. “Shelf already there, bracket loose” can be a repair. “New gondola along the wall” is an installation of racks and needs the NOA, and the gondola itself is quote on inspection. “Keys back Friday” is the reinstatement page, not this one. A heartland mall lot that sits inside a managed centre is a third case: the HDB shop rules and the mall’s permit to work can both apply. The overnight row of S$380 to S$650 is only when that centre requires the night slot. It is not added because the address is a neighbourhood.
Food shops add NEA and SFA finishes and the grease-trap duty on the grease guide. A minimart that only sells packed food is not the same as an eating house. Say which. A change of use, for example a shop becoming a gym or a music school, is HDB’s change-of-use path and, where the fire-code purpose group changes, an SCDF matter. We do not submit that.
| What you see | What to photograph | Stop |
|---|---|---|
| Shutter or grille will not travel | The guide, the limits, and whether it is a fire shutter | Use the shutter rows. Stop if someone has pinned it |
| New shelves or a new floor are in the plan | The NOA, or the CORENET approval if the work is not exempt | Do not drill first |
| Something must be fixed on the common corridor | The town council’s reply, not only the tenancy | We do not anchor into common property on a shop lease |
| The landlord’s agent sent a yield-up list | What must be removed | Reinstatement bands, not a S$55 visit |
Which job you actually have
The dollar follows the permission, then the fitting.
| Situation | Use this | Leave this alone |
|---|---|---|
| Existing shutter, glass door or silicone joint | The printed row for that fitting | Not a flat renovation permit |
| New shelves, new finishes, or a replacement door | NOA first, then a quote | Not “minor, so no paper” |
| Wall removed or layout changed | Qualified person and V On, quote on inspection | Not a handyman hour |
| Awning, sign or light on common property | Town council clearance, sign price not printed | Not an interior shelf visit |
| Heartland mall requires night work | Hardware row plus S$380 to S$650 | Not automatic for every HDB shop |
| About 300 sq ft to strip at lease end | S$3,000 to S$7,500 on the reinstatement page | Not this punch list |
Questions a shop should ask
Questions a shop should ask
A shop quote that cannot answer these is using the flat price list.
- Is this an HDB rental shop, a sold HDB shop, a heartland mall lot, or a private shophouse?
- Is the fitting already there, or is this a new shelf, floor or door?
- Where is the Notice of Alteration, if the work is one HDB lists as needing one?
- Does any fixing land on common property? If yes, what did the town council say?
- Is the shutter a fire shutter, and will it still drop after the visit?
- Is the unit a food shop? If yes, which grease trap and which wall finish are in scope?
- Is a sign included? There is no mounting price on this site.
- Who is on the invoice, the tenant or the landlord? We do not decide the lease.
HDB shop, heartland mall, or shophouse
The photo of a roller shutter does not say who owns the wall above it.
| Question | HDB neighbourhood shop | Heartland mall lot | Private or conserved shophouse |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who approves interior fitting-out | HDB, NOA or CORENET as the guide splits them | HDB if it is an HDB shop, plus the mall’s permit | The landlord and, if conserved, URA. Not the flat permit |
| Town council | Common-property awnings, lights, signs, LPG, and external wall colour | Mall management usually replaces the town council for the mall lot | The owner or the conservation rules |
| Noisy hours | Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, for the noisy list | The mall’s permitted hours can be tighter | The lease and any conservation condition |
| Night hardware slot | Not the mall row unless a mall requires it | S$380 to S$650 when the centre requires that slot | Not charged by habit |
Rules that apply
HDB’s shop guide says renovation applications that are not exempt are made by a qualified person, and 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 this site names for that permit path. Homey Furnishing does not submit CORENET and does not display an NOA it did not see. The guide also says disagreement on price or quality between tenant and contractor is a private matter, and points people to CASE, the Small Claims Tribunals, or the courts. We do not offer to referee that.
Works the guide forbids include hacking or coring through beams, columns and other structural members, altering the external reinforced-concrete facade, converting living quarters to commercial use without approval, and signs lit by flickering or flashing lights. Periodic structural inspection of a commercial block is described there as once every five years, and cladding on a structural column may have to come off for the engineer, at the tenant’s cost. We will not box a column in and call it a shelf.
Windows on the shop are a BCA window-contractor matter when the work is installation, retrofitting, repair or replacement. The guide states that a window falling for lack of maintenance can mean a fine of up to S$10,000 and a jail term of up to one year, or both. That sentence is HDB’s, pointing at go.gov.sg/windowsafety. It is not a handyman extra. Electrical work and gas work are for an EMA licensed worker. Water pipe services are for a PUB licensed plumber. Those trades are the electrical and plumbing pages, not a line item hidden inside “shop handyman”.
Official pages
- HDB renovation guide for shop tenants and owners, December 2025
- HDB: renovating a shop or office
- HDB: addition and alteration works for commercial premises
- BCA: building works that do not need plan approval
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
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.
| Charge | What it covers | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Per hour | Permit-exempt handyman time after a priced task, if the scope says so | S$45/hr |
| Minimum, one task | One permit-exempt task on one visit | S$55 |
| Mall overnight | Permit-to-work admin and one hardware fix when the mall requires the night slot | S$380 to S$650 |
| A matching catalogue row | The photo matches a row already printed | That row |
| A gondola run, a cassette aircon, a full shop repaint, a camera, a floor trap size | No catalogue row for that product | quote on inspection |
Each fitting uses its own printed row. The mall overnight row is added only when a mall requires that slot. An HDB shop that is not inside such a mall does not pay it.
Ways to keep the bill smaller
Ways to keep the bill smaller
- Send the existing-fitting photos separately from the new-rack sketch. Mixing them produces a renovation argument.
- Lodge the NOA before you book the noisy day. A crew that has to leave is not a saving.
- Keep the fire shutter, the exit sign and the extinguisher out of the “while you are here” list. They have their own rules.
- Read the yield-up clause before you pay to install a fitting the landlord will ask you to remove.
WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630.
Price, or quote on inspection
These rows already exist. A shop renovation total does not.
Anything not in that table is quote on inspection.
| Scope already published | 2026 band in the repo | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Showcase lock, hinge and track | S$250 to S$550 | Mall overnight page |
| Shutter track and limits | S$250 to S$480 | Shutter page |
| Shutter spring or motor | S$580 to S$1,350 | Shutter page |
| Glass door alignment | S$250 to S$420 | Glass door page |
| One silicone zone | S$80 to S$150 | Defect calculator |
| Small hole patch and repaint | S$150 to S$280 | Ceiling repair |
| Mall overnight, only if required | S$380 to S$650 | Mall page |
| About 300 sq ft strip-out | S$3,000 to S$7,500 | Reinstatement page |
| New gondola, full shop repaint, sign mounting | quote on inspection | No catalogue row |
WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630. The reply uses a band already printed on HomeySG, or it says quote on inspection.
Related pages
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to renovate a shop?
There is no shop-renovation package on HomeySG. Existing hardware uses the printed row, such as a shutter track at S$250 to S$480. A new layout is quote on inspection after the HDB path is known.
What renovation works require an HDB permit?
For an HDB shop, HDB’s December 2025 guide requires prior approval for fitting-out. Shelves, floor and wall finishes, and replacement doors or windows need a Notice of Alteration. Works outside the exemption list go through a qualified person on CORENET. A flat permit is not that document.
What does renovating a store mean?
On this page it means work inside a shop premises. Tightening a fitting that is already there is a repair. Installing racks or laying a new finish is the Notice of Alteration. Removing a wall is a qualified-person submission.
How much does it cost to hire a handyman in Singapore?
One permit-exempt task is S$55. Further permit-exempt time, where a scope says so, is S$45 an hour. A shop fitting that already has its own band uses that band instead of stacking the hour on top.
Does the town council approve an HDB shop renovation?
Interior fitting-out is HDB’s. The town council is named in the shop guide for fittings on common property, including awnings, lights, signboards and LPG, and for external wall colour.
Can I renovate an HDB shop on Saturday?
General work that is not noisy may run 9am to 6pm on Saturday. Noisy work, including hacking, removing finishes, cutting tiles and heavy drilling, is Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Sunday and public holidays are not working days under that guide.