SINGAPORE: On Sunday (Jun 1), a doctor shared on LinkedIn that a rental clinic in Tampines is going for a monthly rental rate of more than S$52,000 per month.
Dr. Hisham Badaruddin posted a screenshot of the final result for the bid of S$52,188 for Block 954C, Tampines Street 96, indicating that Lum Sian Wei Shaun was the successful tenderer. Its closing date was Jan 14, 2025.
“This is obscene … S$52K per month rental for a clinic in a HDB area? Madness…,” wrote Dr Hisham, whose LinkedIn bio says he is a Longevity Medicine Physician, in the caption to his post, adding that he believes the Ministry of Health might say that rentals in the private sector are out of their purview.
His post has since garnered many reactions and shares, with some commenters expressing concern that the high rental rate could be passed on to patients, who might find themselves saddled with higher consultation fees.
In response to a question about the clinic’s size, Dr Hisham guessed that it’s likely to be less than 1,000 square meters.
“That’s crazy! Can’t believe this is a HDB tender!!” a commenter wrote.
“Rent in Singapore is abhorrently high, especially when it comes to businesses, and let’s not talk about renewal of leases once you have invested your hard-earned money in renovation. The landlord knows you are stuck between a rock and a hard place!” wrote another LinkedIn user.
Over on Reddit, where the post was shared, the top comment pointed out that “Caring Pte Ltd, who was second in this bid, won two other bids with a S$25K/mo rent. In the same doc, there are two clinics in the North that went for S$4.2K and S$5K each.
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If the outlets were listed at these rates, Hisham might have a point, but in a closed bidding system, if he’s literally bidding twice the amount as the next person, then either he’s spoiling the market, or there’s something special about that location that guarantees crazy good business.”
Another agreed saying, “There will always be these opportunistic people who’ll try to ruin the playing field for market share & supposedly future gains.”
“Location is at a new BTO estate that recently TOP-ed, winning bid is essentially paying over the top to get a first mover advantage by trying to lock their patients in,” a commenter pointed out.
A Reddit user wrote, “S$52k is absolutely insane. It is double or triple the current market rate to rent in a populated HDB area. How do they even sustain? It doesn’t seem right unless they are open for long hours or 24/7.”
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Some commenters on LinkedIn and Facebook, however, wrote that the renter may be planning an aesthetic clinic instead of a GP clinic, a practice that can be very lucrative indeed. /TISG
Read also: Resident tells Jamus Lim her industry is being killed by high rental costs
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