Question No: 198 

Question by: Mr David Hoe 

To ask the Minister for National Development whether HDB will consider (i) reviewing the prevalence and clustering of massage establishments in HDB town centres (ii) working with other agencies to develop anti-clustering measures such as reduced quotas, minimum distances between establishments, stricter licensing or land-use conditions for heartland areas and (iii) publishing siting or renewal guidelines and action plans and timelines, for town centres with persistent concentrations. 

Answer:  

For HDB town centres and neighbourhood centres, HDB allows for some market flexibility in the trade mix. HDB imposes trade mix controls for the HDB rental shops and sets quotas on trades which may cause disamenities, including massage establishments. Such quotas are also imposed for privately-owned shops in the HDB towns when the shop owners seek HDB’s approval for a change of use to massage establishments. Beyond this, Police also regulates massage establishments. 

To preserve the residential character of our estates, HDB has since tightened the quota and worked with Police to step up enforcement actions against errant massage operators.