Health Minister Ong Ye Kung 'dismayed' at S$52,188 monthly rental bid for Tampines West clinic

Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said he was "dismayed" at finding out that a S$52,188 monthly rental bid was tendered to run a clinic in a Housing and Development Board (HDB) estate in Tampines West.

Responded to S$52,188 rental issue on Facebook

Ong said in a Facebook post on Jun. 4 night: "This 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.

Works out to S$1,000 per sq m

The rental at Block 954C Tampines Street 96 by I-Health Medical Holdings in January 2025 works out to over S$1,000 per sq m, the minister pointed out.

The unit is about 50 sq m (538 sq ft).

The eye-watering figure led to online discussions on whether healthcare costs will be impacted.

The other winning rental bid for a Tampines Street 64 shop space that closed in January was S$25,388.

Other winning bids for clinics were from S$4,200 to S$40,088, which was the second highest winning bid at Tengah Garden Walk that also closed in January.

New tender approach launched

Ong noted that MOH and HDB launched a new tender approach for general practitioner (GP) clinics at Bartley Beacon, which closed on May 29, 2025.

The unit is about 100 sq m, about double the size of a normal clinic, and can be used to "try out new care models" and provide multi-disciplinary care, he added.

The new approach uses a tender evaluation, where quality of care accounts for 70 per cent, while rental will make up 30 per cent — also known as a Price-Quality evaluation Model (PQM).

This will help "shift the competitive focus away from rental rates" towards "better care models, including preventive care, chronic disease management and mental health", Ong said.

Ong pointed out that the Tampines clinic was tendered before the PQM model started — in December 2024 and awarded in March 2025.

He said MOH officers have received "interesting proposals", with rental bid prices "significantly below the Tampines site", and are assessing the proposals.

The new PQM approach will become the norm when tendering our GP clinics in our HDB heartlands, he said.

HDB's response

The tender for the Tampines clinic attracted 13 bids and was awarded to Shaun Lum, the co-owner of I-Health, at S$52,188 a month.

"This is significantly higher than the average tendered rent of around S$9,800 per month for similar-sized clinics let by HDB in 2024 and it is also the highest per square foot rent that HDB has received for GP and dental clinics of this size to date," HDB said on Wednesday night.

HDB said all tenders awarded for GP clinics have so far been based on tendered price.

Bids are business decisions influenced by various factors including location, shop size, trades, and prevailing market conditions, it added.

The Tampines clinic rental price "does not set any price requirements for future tenders by HDB", and it also will not affect the rentals that HDB is charging other existing clinics, HDB said.

The Bartley Beacon tender closed with a total of 18 tenderers, HDB revealed.

MOH and HDB are in the process of evaluating it and aim to award the tender by August 2025.

Top photo via Ong Ye Kung Facebook & Google Maps