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HDB Rental Yield in Singapore: How to Calculate and Compare

21 octobre 2026
HDB Rental Yield in Singapore: How to Calculate and Compare

HDB rental yield is the annual rent a flat earns divided by its price, and published gross figures for resale flats currently sit well above those of comparable private units, commonly in the range of 4% to 8% depending on town and flat type. The headline number is a starting point only: it excludes the Minimum Occupation Period, tenant quotas, tax treatment and vacancy, all of which determine what an owner actually keeps. This article sets out the formula, the town-level pattern, the HDB-specific rules that affect returns and a method for checking a particular flat.

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TL;DR

  • Gross yield is annual rent divided by purchase price; net yield deducts the costs of holding and maintaining the flat, and the two can differ by one to two percentage points or more.
  • Published gross yields for HDB flats vary by source and method, but cheaper towns with mid-sized flats, such as those in the west, tend to rank higher than central and mature estates where prices are higher.
  • An owner can rent out an entire flat only after the 5-year Minimum Occupation Period (3 years for certain older non-subsidised purchases), and the non-citizen quota can narrow the tenant pool.
  • Agent fees, advertising and legal costs to secure the first tenant are not deductible for income tax, while expenses to maintain the tenancy generally are.

Table of Contents

What HDB rental yield measures

Rental yield expresses the income from a property as a percentage of its value. Two versions are in common use:

  • Gross rental yield: (monthly rent × 12) ÷ purchase price (or current market value) × 100.
  • Net rental yield: (annual rent − annual holding and maintenance costs) ÷ purchase price × 100.

The denominator matters. An owner who bought a flat years ago may calculate yield against the original price, while a prospective buyer should use today's transacted price, because that is the capital actually tied up. Market-wide yield tables normally use the median resale price and the median rent for the same town and flat type.

A worked example

Take a 4-room flat in a mature town. Published figures for Ang Mo Kio 4-room flats show a median price of $630,000 and a median monthly rent of $3,500, which annualises to $42,000 and a gross yield of 6.7%. The same publication lists Bedok 4-room flats at a median price of $588,000 and a rent of $3,300, also 6.7%.

For an illustration of the net figure, assume a flat bought at $600,000 and let at $3,200 a month:

ItemAmount
Annual rent ($3,200 × 12)$38,400
Gross yield ($38,400 ÷ $600,000)6.4%
Assumed annual costs (property tax, insurance, repairs, conservancy charges, a vacancy allowance)$6,000
Net income$32,400
Net yield ($32,400 ÷ $600,000)5.4%

The $6,000 cost line is an assumption for the example, not a published figure. Each owner's costs differ, and mortgage interest, if any, changes the result again.

How yields differ across HDB towns

Rental yield is a ratio, so it moves when either price or rent moves. HDB towns show a consistent pattern: rents vary less across the island than resale prices do, which means towns with lower prices often show higher percentage yields even when the rent is modest.

HDB's own data shows the rent side of this. In the 4th Quarter 2025 rental annex, median 4-room rents ranged from $3,000 in Woodlands and Sembawang to $4,050 in the Central Area and Queenstown. For the second quarter of 2026, a news round-up of HDB's dataset reports a range from $3,000 in Choa Chu Kang and Bukit Panjang to $4,600 in the Central Area, a gap of $1,600 a month. The same report notes that between the first and second quarters, 4-room rents rose in 11 towns, fell in five and were unchanged in nine.

On the yield side, third-party compilations differ in their results because they use different periods, transaction windows and flat types. In one 2026 edition guide, the top 4-room towns are Jurong West (7.6%), Jurong East (7.4%) and Choa Chu Kang (6.8%), while a separate town-level ranking is not available from HDB itself, since HDB publishes rents and not yields. Readers comparing sources should therefore check three things before relying on a number: the date range, whether the price is a resale median or a recent transaction, and whether the rent comes from approved rental applications.

Yield percentages for three HDB towns

Why mature estates rank lower

Central and mature towns attract higher rents, but their resale prices, especially for larger flats, are higher still. A 5-room flat priced above $1,000,000 in a mature town may rent for $3,800 to $4,000, which produces a gross yield around 4% to 4.5%, whereas a 5-room flat in a less expensive town can exceed 6%. Both figures appear in the 2026 edition guide, where Ang Mo Kio 5-room flats show 4.2% and Woodlands 6.1%.

A higher yield does not automatically mean a better investment. Lower-priced towns may have more rental supply, longer gaps between tenants or slower capital growth. Yield describes income only, and total return also includes price change, which for HDB flats is shaped by the remaining lease and policy.

Rental income and price change shape returns

HDB versus condominium yields

HDB flats generally show higher gross yields than private condominiums because the entry price is lower while the rental demand for affordable units is deep. Buyers weighing the two should note that the purchase rules differ: a citizen owning an HDB flat who buys a second property may face additional buyer's stamp duty, which is covered in our comparison of HDB and condominium purchases for Singapore buyers. Our overview of net rental yield and cashflow explains how the net figure compares with the gross one on private property.

The market context also matters. Our rental market note discusses vacancy and tenant bargaining power, and the property market trends review tracks the divergence between private and HDB price movements. URA's release for the second quarter of 2026 reports that the private residential price index rose 0.5% in the quarter, below the 0.9% of the previous quarter.

Who may rent out an HDB flat, and when

Yield calculations are only relevant if the flat can legally be let. The conditions are set by HDB, and the relevant rules are these.

  1. Minimum Occupation Period (MOP). HDB states that an owner may rent out the whole flat after fulfilling the 5-year MOP, and that for a non-subsidised flat bought on the open market before 30 August 2010 the MOP is 3 years.
  2. Room rental. Owners of a 3-room or larger flat may rent out spare bedrooms, whereas owners of 1-room and 2-room flats may not. HDB approval is required before the tenancy begins. Our HDB room rental checklist lists the steps in order.
  3. Occupancy cap. HDB and URA have extended the temporary relaxation of the occupancy cap for larger HDB flats and private residential properties until 31 December 2028. The relaxation applies to 4-room and larger flats and allows up to 8 unrelated occupants, compared with the usual 6.
  4. Non-citizen quota. HDB applies a quota on non-citizen tenants, at 8% for the neighbourhood and 11% for the block. Where the quota has been reached, a flat can be let only to Singaporeans and Malaysians, which can lengthen the vacancy period for owners targeting expatriates. Owners can confirm the current position on HDB's website before marketing a flat.
  5. Notification. HDB must be notified within 7 days of a change in tenant particulars or when a tenant moves out, and failure to do so can lead to penalties.

The higher occupancy allowance can raise the rent collected from a large flat, but it also increases wear and the need to manage tenants, and the cap reverts to 6 for tenancies extending beyond 31 December 2028. A yield model should not assume the higher figure indefinitely.

Costs and tax that reduce the net figure

Gross yield ignores several costs that an owner bears. The main categories are:

  • Vacancy. A gap of one month a year removes about 8.3% of annual rent, which for a flat yielding 6.4% gross reduces the figure to roughly 5.9% before other costs.
  • Taxes and recurring charges. Property tax, fire insurance and service and conservancy charges recur whether or not the flat is let.
  • Repairs and furnishing. Minor repairs during a tenancy are an ongoing cost, while furnishing for a new tenancy may be a one-off.
  • Letting costs. Agent commissions, advertising and legal fees to secure the first tenant.
  • Financing. Mortgage interest, if the flat is financed, is a significant cost that sits outside gross yield altogether.

For income tax, the treatment of these costs is specific. IRAS guidance for Form B151bd.pdf?sfvrsn=5c44ab37_2) states that residential rental expenses can be claimed on one of two bases, either mortgage interest plus an amount of deemed expenses, or the actual expenses incurred to derive the income, subject to its conditions. Costs of securing the first tenant, such as agent commission, advertising and legal fees, are generally treated as non-deductible, and owners should confirm their own position with IRAS or a tax adviser before filing.

Our perspective

We see the same pattern in questions from landlords and prospective buyers: a gross yield is quoted, a purchase is made, and the net figure turns out to be lower than expected because the costs, vacancy and compliance steps were left out of the model. Gross yield is useful for screening towns, and net yield after realistic costs is the number to hold a decision against.

We also consider that the yield on its own is incomplete. A flat with a 7% gross yield in a town with weak resale demand and a short remaining lease can deliver a lower total return than a 5% flat in a town with steady transaction volumes. The inputs that matter are the transacted prices of nearby flats, the approved rents for the same flat type, the remaining lease and the rules that govern who can be a tenant. These are all public data points, and our purpose in combining them is to make the comparison transparent so that an owner, a buyer or an agent can check a figure rather than accept it.

For that reason we recommend three habits: use the median of recent transactions in the same block or street rather than a town-wide average, compare rent against HDB's published medians before setting an asking rent, and revisit the model each quarter when HDB and URA release new data.

— HAIO

How to check a specific flat

A town-level table is a screening tool. The following sequence narrows it to a single unit:

  1. Pull recent transactions. Collect the resale prices of the same flat type in the same block or street over the last six to twelve months, and note the storey and remaining lease.
  2. Set the rent benchmark. Compare HDB's published median rents for the town and flat type with current listings, and allow for the difference between asking and approved rents.
  3. Compute gross yield using the formula above.
  4. Deduct costs using your own figures for tax, insurance, repairs and a vacancy allowance, and check how the result changes if the tenant search takes two months instead of one.
  5. Check eligibility. Confirm that the MOP has been met, that the flat type allows the intended arrangement and that the block's non-citizen quota leaves room for your target tenants.
  6. Stress the result. Reduce the rent by 5% to 10% and add a month of vacancy, then ask whether the yield still meets the purpose of the purchase.

Using haio to run the numbers

The data needed for steps 1 to 4 is spread across several sources, and our platform combines the transaction data for Singapore residential property in one place. Property Analysis and Valuation Analysis help estimate the current value that serves as the yield denominator, and the Affordability check shows what a purchase budget supports before a buyer starts comparing yields. Free access covers the transaction data up to a point, and haio+ is available at S$49 per month or S$499 per year for premium analytics, valuation reports and Master Plan tools. Market updates are published on haio News, and the insights section carries longer analysis.

FAQ

Which HDB town has the highest rental yield?

It depends on the source, flat type and period. In one 2026 guide, Jurong West, Jurong East and Choa Chu Kang lead for 4-room flats, while a different compilation for 3-room flats puts Toa Payoh first, so a reader should compare the flat type and date before treating any ranking as definitive. The guide lists the full tables.

Is 3.5% a good rental yield in Singapore?

It is on the low side for an HDB flat on a gross basis, given the town-level figures above, but it is not unusual as a net figure after costs, and private property often yields less. Whether it is acceptable depends on expected capital growth, financing cost and the owner's alternatives.

Can I rent out my HDB flat straight after buying it?

No. An owner generally has to complete the 5-year Minimum Occupation Period first, with a 3-year period for certain non-subsidised flats bought before 30 August 2010, according to HDB. Owners with a specific situation, such as a change of circumstances, should ask HDB directly about their options.

Are agent fees tax-deductible for a rented HDB flat?

Costs incurred to secure the first tenant, including agent commission, advertising and legal fees, are generally not deductible, while expenses to maintain the tenancy generally are, per IRAS guidance51bd.pdf?sfvrsn=5c44ab37_2). Confirm the position for your own return with IRAS or a tax adviser.

Sources