Ong Ye Kung ‘dismayed' at $52k bid to rent Tampines HDB clinic

Straits Times

2 days ago

I-Health Medical Holdings won the tender to operate the 50 sq m ground-floor unit at Block 954C Tampines Street 96 in March. ST PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR
SINGAPORE - Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said he was 'dismayed' at the $52,188 monthly rental bid for a general practitioner (GP) clinic in a Tampines HDB estate as it may lead to higher healthcare costs.
He pointed out that going forward, bids for future HDB GP clinics will be assessed using a model that focuses less on price, and more on quality of care, he said in a Facebook post on June 4.
Mr Ong said the high rental bid 'must translate to higher cost of healthcare one way or another, and negate the effort of Ministry of Health (MOH) to try to keep the cost of primary healthcare affordable'.
'More importantly, higher rental bids do not necessarily translate to the best healthcare that the community needs,' he added.
I-Health Medical Holdings won the tender to operate the 50 sq m ground-floor unit at Block 954C Tampines Street 96 in March. Bidding on the unit had closed in January.
Mr Andrew Chim, 37, the co-owner of I-Health Medical Holdings, had said his bid was based on the attractive attributes of the area.
He pointed out that the unit is in the middle of Tampines West where there are five Build-To-Order projects with 5,000 households, as well as other upcoming developments like a new mixed-use project and a shopping mall.
Mr Ong said on June 4 that the role of a GP is increasingly important as the population ages. It is also key in developing a relationship of trust with patients, and the vital link to connect patients to acute hospital care and preventative community care.
MOH and HDB in May launched a new tender approach for GP clinics at the Bartley Beacon development, where quality of care will account for 70 per cent of tender evaluation and rental price will be 30 per cent.
The tender closed on May 29. MOH had received proposals with rental bids significantly below that for the Tampines site, Mr Ong added.
He noted that the Tampines clinic launched for tender in December 2024 and was awarded in March 2025, before tenders took on the price-quality evaluation model. The new model which will be the norm moving forward.
'It will be a meaningful shift, both in improving primary care, and ensuring greater affordability,' Mr Ong said.
The $52,188 rent came to public attention on May 31 after healthcare practitioner Hisham Badaruddin took to professional networking platform LinkedIn to say this was an 'obscene' amount to pay for rent for a clinic in an HDB estate.
General practitioners who run clinics in HDB estates either rent directly from the state, or from landlords who own HDB commercial units.
GPs that the The Straits Times spoke to felt the $52,188 rental was too high to be sustainable. Some doctors that rented from private landlords described a volatile rental market that has seen prices rising after the pandemic.
Dr Conrad Chin, who runs the E. L. Chin Family Clinic and Surgery in Clementi, said he thought the rental amount was outrageous.
'Most older doctors do not pay above $2,000 for rent. I doubt that the ($52,188) price is sustainable in the long term,' he added.
Dr Wong Choo Wai, who runs two HDB clinics in Bedok and Jurong, said if rent is not sustainable the clinic will have to pass on the cost to patients.
Dr Wong, who rented before buying his own units in 2009 and 2015, said the rental market has been volatile.
'When the clinic starts doing well, private landlords may jack up the rent,' he said.
In 2009, the landlord for his Bedok unit asked for a 40 per cent increase in rent. As the rent 'did not make sense' for the clinic, Dr Wong bought a neighbouring unit for about $750,000.
'I'm thankful I made the decision to buy, else I will be at the mercy of the landlord,' he added.
A doctor who runs a clinic in Clementi, and declined to be named, said he hopes the $52,188 rent will not trigger rent hikes as small businesses are already struggling with rentals.
'Anything over $10,000 would be difficult for me to run the clinic. As solo GPs, we don't make that kind of money to justify the rental,' he said.
Parkway Shenton chief executive Tay Wee Kai said that rents at their clinics in HDB estates have increased across the board post Covid-19.
'This is partly due to inflation and also due to some landlords adopting a 'catch-up' mentality and expecting higher rent,' he said.
Mr Tay added that during the Covid-19 pandemic, rents remained stagnant and even went down at some locations. Their branches in HDB estates comprise about half of their more than 30 clinics.
Isabelle Liew is a journalist at The Straits Times. She covers housing issues in Singapore, with a focus on public housing.
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