On room-renting site Airbnb, travellers can book stays in anything from tents to boats, and even caves, but not Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats. Owners are not allowed to sublet their homes to tourists, a policy site co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk hopes will soon change.
Opening up subletting policies of HDB flats will give owners a supplementary source of income, enabling them to play host to more than a million Singapore tourists using Airbnb every month, co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk said, according to a Channel NewsAsia report.
While a public feedback exercise to assess whether private residential properties should be used for short-term stays such as those through Airbnb is underway, there is no review of public housing policies.
“This is an opportunity for regular people to earn a supplementary income and I think that is… just as important for those who own private homes in Singapore as it is to those who live in public housing,” Mr Blecharczyk explained.
“Those are the middle-class or below-middle-class people who can really benefit from a few extra dollars,” he added.
Room rates start from as little as $15 a night for a shared room in Clementi, to $5,000 a month for a room with four beds in a Balestier condominium.
In a blog post earlier this year, Cabinet Minister Khaw Boon Wan expressed his disapproval of home-sharing in HDB towns, saying neighbours “would not like to see their quiet neighbourhood becoming a hotel district”.
For more information, visit Channel NewsAsia.
If you enjoyed this article, you might be interested in How to spot an Airbnb unit in your condo (and whether you should tell!) and URA proposes 80% consent rule for Airbnb short-term rentals for condos.
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