By Winfred Quek · CEA R073319H · Published 26 October 2026
Facts verified: 26 October 2026 · Sources listed below
Owners who rent out a bedroom often ask what the official data says the room is worth. The honest answer is that it does not say. What it does give you is a solid, public view of what whole homes rent for, town by town, which is a better starting point than a guess from a chat group. This page shows what the data covers, what I computed from it, and how an owner can reason from a whole flat figure down to a room without inventing numbers. Winfred also keeps a public room rental site at winfredquek.com/rent where current listings can be viewed. If you rent out a room, the HDB rules are in the HDB subletting guide.
What the HDB data is, and what it is not
The dataset is called Renting Out of Flats from Jan 2021 and is published by HDB on data.gov.sg. Each row has an approval month, town, block, street name, flat type and monthly rent. It was last updated on 2 October 2026 and covers January 2021 to September 2026, with over 212,000 rows. HDB's own description is that the rental data are indicative only, owner declared, and that HDB does not verify the accuracy of the data.
Two points shape how you use it.
- It has no room field. The columns do not mark a row as a bedroom or a whole flat. Read it as whole flat rent. A small number of very low rows exist: in the 12 months I used, 145 of 12,195 three room rows and 60 of 13,475 four room rows are under $1,500. I cannot tell whether those are typing errors, part rentals or something else, so I use medians and the middle half of rents, which these rows barely move.
- It is a record of approved rents, not asking rents. It shows what owners declared on approved rentals. A listing you see today may be higher or lower.
Source: HDB via data.gov.sg, Renting Out of Flats from Jan 2021, data.gov.sg rental dataset, dataset page and data pulled 26 October 2026, rows for October 2025 to September 2026. My calculation of medians and quartiles.
What whole flat rents look like by town
Using approvals from October 2025 to September 2026, the nationwide median monthly rent by flat type was as follows.
| Flat type | Approvals | Median monthly rent |
|---|---|---|
| 2 room | 1,116 | $2,350 |
| 3 room | 12,195 | $2,850 |
| 4 room | 13,475 | $3,300 |
| 5 room | 8,359 | $3,500 |
| Executive | 1,856 | $3,800 |
Town matters more than most owners expect. Among the towns with at least 100 approvals in that period, the town median for 3 room flats ran from $2,500 in Woodlands to $3,300 in the Central area. For 4 room flats it ran from $3,000 in Bukit Panjang to $4,450 in the Central area. A sample of towns follows, with the middle half of rents shown as the 25th to the 75th percentile.
| Town | 3 room median (middle half) | 4 room median (middle half) |
|---|---|---|
| Ang Mo Kio | $2,800 ($2,600 to $3,000) | $3,400 ($3,200 to $3,600) |
| Bedok | $2,800 ($2,550 to $2,950) | $3,380 ($3,000 to $3,600) |
| Tampines | $2,850 ($2,700 to $3,000) | $3,400 ($3,200 to $3,600) |
| Queenstown | $3,000 ($2,800 to $3,300) | $4,150 ($3,800 to $4,400) |
| Toa Payoh | $2,900 ($2,700 to $3,100) | $3,700 ($3,300 to $4,000) |
| Jurong West | $2,700 ($2,400 to $2,900) | $3,500 ($3,200 to $3,800) |
| Bukit Panjang | $2,600 ($2,460 to $2,750) | $3,000 ($2,900 to $3,200) |
The market also moves slowly month to month. The nationwide 4 room median stayed between $3,300 and $3,400 in every one of those twelve months. That tells you the town and flat type are bigger drivers than the month of the year.
From a whole flat figure to a room
Here is a method an owner can follow. It makes no claim about what a room is worth, because the data cannot say that.
- Find your anchor. Take the median for your town and flat type, and note the middle half range. This is what whole flats like yours were approved at.
- Do the arithmetic, and call it arithmetic. Divide the anchor by the number of bedrooms the flat has. This is a unit of measure, not a price. A room you share a kitchen and living area with an owner is a different product from one bedroom of a whole flat rented to a single household.
- List what is different about your room. Size, whether it has an attached bathroom, air conditioning, the walk to the MRT, whether utilities are included, how many people share the bathrooms, and whether you live there. Each of these moves the number up or down, and none has an official value.
- Compare with live asks. Look at current listings for similar rooms near you, including the public room listings at winfredquek.com/rent. Asking prices differ from approved rents, so use them to sense the range, not to set the exact price.
- Test the result against your costs. Add the HDB fee of $9 per bedroom for approval, any extra utilities you absorb, and your own tax position. For tax, see the rental income tax guide.
Take this assumed example, with figures used only to show the steps. A Bedok 4 room flat has a data median of $3,380. Assume it has three bedrooms. Dividing gives about $1,127 per bedroom, and the middle half range of $3,000 to $3,600 gives about $1,000 to $1,200. That is an anchor for thinking, not a rate. A room with a shared bathroom, in a flat where the owner also lives, may sit well away from that anchor in either direction, which is why step 3 and step 4 matter more than step 2.
Source: HDB, Application Process for Renting Out Bedrooms ($9 per bedroom), hdb.gov.sg bedroom application process, checked 26 October 2026.
Private homes: what URA offers
For private property, URA runs a free Private Residential Rental Contracts search. It covers rental contracts submitted to IRAS for stamp duty assessment within the last 60 months, lets you search by project or postal district, and is updated monthly on the 15th. It is project level information on whole units, so the same caveat applies: it does not tell you what a room alone fetches. For the broader direction, URA's 23 October 2026 release says rentals of private residential properties rose 1.3% in the third quarter of 2026, with non landed rentals up 1.2%. By region, rentals of non landed properties fell 0.3% in the CCR, rose 1.5% in the RCR and rose 3.1% in the OCR. Those are quarterly changes in an index, not rent levels, and say nothing about the next quarter.
Remember too that private homes have a minimum stay of 3 consecutive months and HDB has 6 months per tenant, see minimum rental period rules. A room is no exception, so a price per night is not an option.
Source: URA, Private Residential Rental Contracts, eservice.ura.gov.sg rental search, checked 26 October 2026. Source: URA, Release of 3rd Quarter 2026 real estate statistics, ura.gov.sg third quarter 2026 release, checked 26 October 2026.
Common mistakes when pricing a room
- Using a whole flat rent as the room rent. It is the rent of the whole home, not a room.
- Quoting the highest ask in the building. One ask is not a market. Use ranges.
- Ignoring vacancy. A room empty for a month changes the year. For how much that matters, see renew or relist a rental unit.
- Forgetting the approval. HDB approval comes before the tenancy starts, and unauthorised rental can lead to penalties.
Frequently asked questions
Does official data show what a single room rents for?
No. HDB's dataset on data.gov.sg lists whole flat rents by town and flat type with no field that marks a bedroom rental, and URA's rental search covers whole units by project. Neither gives a room rate.
How reliable is the HDB rental data?
HDB describes the data as indicative only, owner declared, and says it does not verify the accuracy. Medians and middle half ranges are safer to use than single rows, because a few very low or very high rows exist.
Can I divide the whole flat rent by the number of bedrooms to price a room?
You can do it as arithmetic for an anchor, but it is not a room rate. A room shared with an owner, with a shared bathroom and shared utilities, is a different product from a bedroom in a flat rented to one household.
What does it cost to get approval to rent out an HDB bedroom?
HDB states an administrative fee of $9 per bedroom, and approval must be sought before the tenancy starts through MyHDB or the MyHDB app.
Want a second opinion on the rent for your room?
Share your town, flat type and what the room offers, and Winfred will go through the official numbers and live listings with you so you can set a price you can defend. General information only.
Ask Winfred on WhatsApp Book a free 30 minute callWinfred Quek, CEA R073319H, Crestbrick Pte Ltd (L3010886H). General information as at 26 October 2026, not legal, financial, tax or property advice. Figures are from HDB open data on data.gov.sg and URA pages and may change. Medians and quartiles are my calculation from rows for October 2025 to September 2026. The room example uses assumed figures and is not a rate. This page makes no price or rent forecast.