Signboards on HDB shops

“HDB shop signage” is a rules search wearing a price search’s clothes. There is still no sign price. What there is, on HDB’s addition-and-alteration page for shops and offices, is a short specification. Installation of a signboard is allowed only in designated locations: immediately above the front entrance door, on the shop front wall beside the entrance door, and directly above the shop rear entrance door. Above the front entrance, maximum height is 600 mm and maximum width is the width of the shop. Above the rear entrance, the sign is the same size as the existing door vent but not exceeding 1 square metre. A line in that size section also says “same size as existing vent”. Read the live page before you fabricate a beside-the-door panel, because a summary can attach that phrase to the wrong position.

Two more sentences on the same HDB section govern the artwork and the lamp. Only 25 percent of the signboard area can be used as advertising signage directly related to the approved trade. Clearance must be at least 2.60 m above floor level. Seek clearance from BCA’s advertising and licensing unit for advertising signage. Only non-flickering lighting is allowed, and the example HDB gives is neon. A chasing LED border fails that sentence even if it is under 600 mm. The neon page is the lamp. This page is the HDB envelope the lamp has to fit inside.

The shop in the photograph is a ground-floor provision shop under a block. It shows the building type. It does not show an approved sign, a 600 mm measurement, or a Town Council letter. HDB’s renovation guide for shop tenants, the December 2025 revision we read, also says fittings on common property, and it names the signboard among them, need Town Council clearance before installation. A sign that projects into the common corridor is that case. A sign entirely on your shop front still has to sit in HDB’s positions. The guide also lists signboards illuminated by flickering or flashing lights as works that pose a nuisance to the living environment. The residents above the shop are why the flicker rule is there.

Curtains, blinds and roller shades are not part of this booking.

Measure the shop width at the front door, not the width of the five-foot way and not the width including the neighbour’s pier. 600 mm is the vertical limit above that door, so a lightbox that is 700 mm tall does not “mostly comply”. It does not comply with the sentence HDB printed. If the trade needs a taller logo, the logo is redrawn. We will not pack the excess height into the ceiling and call it structure. The fixing is still into the shop’s bulkhead or wall, not into the corridor soffit that belongs to the block, unless the Town Council has cleared that exact screw line.

The 25 percent advertising limit is an artwork problem before it is a drilling problem. A signboard that is the business name, with a small mark for the approved trade, is the shape the sentence describes. A signboard that is a drinks brand across the full 600 mm, with the shop name in a corner, is the shape that fails. We are not the officer who measures the percentage. We will not mount a panel that is obviously a full-bleed product advertisement and call it a nameboard. If the name on the sign is a related company or a franchise rather than the tenant on the agreement, HDB’s scenarios page says you seek approval, and that HDB may ask you to remove an unauthorised signboard. That application is yours, via HDB’s feedback channel as that page describes. We do not submit it.

Lighting is steady. A transformer or driver sits where it can be reached from inside the shop if possible, not in the common ceiling. A new cable is an EMA licensed electrician at the dedicated-circuit band only when the work matches, S$220 to S$450. Many HDB shops already have a lighting point in the sign zone. Using that point, if it is suitable and it is yours, is not a new circuit. Sharing a corridor light that the Town Council maintains is not yours. Do not tap it.

Rear signs are small because HDB says they follow the existing door vent and must not exceed 1 square metre. A rear sign the size of the front fascia is the one that gets complained about by the service-yard neighbours. Side signs on the pier are allowed as a position. Their size should be read on the live page rather than invented here. Good mounting leaves the corridor clear to 2.60 m, the shutter free, and no flicker. Sloppy mounting uses the common soffit, exceeds 600 mm because the acrylic was already cut, and adds a flasher “only at night”.

Photograph the front, the rear door if relevant, and the corridor soffit. Measure the shop width and the height already available above the door up to any beam. Say the approved trade. If the sign name differs from the tenancy name, say so before anything is printed. A franchise mark is the HDB approval path on the scenarios page, not a surprise on installation day.

Food shops still have NEA and SFA expectations about the premises. The sign does not replace those. We will not add a flickering open sign to “help” an inspection. Night work in a shop that faces a residential corridor should respect that people live above it. No after-hours premium is published for HDB shops. The mall overnight row is a mall row. It is not a heartland corridor row.

HDB’s page is the envelope. The object inside it is still quote on inspection.

Questions a business should ask

Ask before the acrylic is ordered.

1. Which of HDB’s three positions is this, and what is the shop width?
2. Is the front sign 600 mm or less in height?
3. Is the underside at least 2.60 m above the floor?
4. What percentage of the board is advertising rather than the business name?
5. Does any light flash or run?
6. Is the screw line inside the shop or on common property?
7. Does the sign name match the tenancy, a franchise, or some other company?

The block above the shop is why these limits exist.

Quote HDB’s A&A page for positions and sizes, HDB’s shop renovation guide for Town Council clearance and for flickering signs as a nuisance, and HDB’s scenarios note if the signboard name is a related company or a franchise. BCA’s licence page still applies to outdoor advertising signage. HDB itself says to seek clearance from BCA’s advertising and licensing unit for advertising signage. A signboard that stays within the 5 square metre exemption BCA describes is still subject to HDB’s positions. Exemption from a BCA fee is not exemption from the 600 mm limit.

Electrical work on a new cable is an EMA licensed electrician. We do not tap common-corridor lighting. No response time is published.

Official pages

• HDB: addition and alteration works for shops and offices, including signboards
• BCA: outdoor advertising sign and signboard licence
• BCA: sign projection rules, Permit To Use and licence fees

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 MOM-licensed employment agency.

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.

The sign is quote on inspection. A small hole that matches the patch sentence is S$150 to S$280. A new circuit that matches the DB page is S$220 to S$450 and is the electrician’s work. The mall overnight band is not an HDB corridor band.

Ways to keep the bill smaller

• Draw the logo inside 600 mm before you pay for acrylic. A recut is the expensive way to learn the limit.
• Keep advertising inside the 25 percent HDB states, so the board is not the thing you are told to remove.
• Use a steady lamp on a point that is already yours.
• If the name is a franchise, apply to HDB before the letters exist.

WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630.

HDB does not create a HomeySG sign price. These rows are the only numbers.

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.

• Shop signage index
• Fascia fixings
• Non-flicker lighting
• BCA on top of HDB
• Other shop touch-ups
• HDB handyman, for flats rather than shops