How to Monetise your HDB Bomb Shelter

How to Monetise your HDB Bomb ShelterIf you’re one of the over 80% of Singaporeans who live in an HDB flat, chances are you have a built-in bomb shelter, also known as a household shelter (HS).

If you’re one of the over 80% of Singaporeans who live in an HDB flat, chances are you have a built-in bomb shelter, also known as a household shelter (HS).

The HDB bomb shelter has been a compulsory feature in all new flats since 1997 when the Civil Defence Shelter Act came into force.

What goes into HDB bomb shelter design?

According to the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), bomb shelter doors are made of SCDF-approved light protective steel and the shelter itself has extra-thick walls, floors and ceilings.

This is to protect inhabitants from blasts and bomb fragments.

Such facilities are also small enough so that they can be cleared out quickly for people to hide in them during emergencies.

So how useful are they really? I’ll leave that for you to decide.

The morbidly hilarious image — of a 40-storey column of bomb shelters left standing after the rest of the building has collapsed — comes to mind.

This article isn’t about all that though, but rather how you can use your HDB bomb shelter to make money, so let’s get straight into it!

Karaoke Room

While there probably isn’t space for a full-blown music studio, there is enough for a couple of mics, a TV and some speakers.

Remember to soundproof the room though!

You could install acoustic foam or panels, thick carpeting and seal the door to keep sound in, especially if you don’t want to receive a knock on the door from the mata-mata due to noise complaints.

You also need to keep in mind that the structural components of your shelter — the walls, floor and ceiling — cannot be tampered with.

Pet Sitting Space

Remember to have adequate ventilation in the shelter. Remove your bomb shelter ventilation cover!

It may be advisable to use your entire flat if you go with this option, with the shelter as a dedicated space with toys, beds and other accessories. You don’t want your customer’s pets to be holed up in a tiny space for hours on end.

If you don’t want to use your whole flat, you could set up a pet boarding service for birds, reptiles, hamsters and the like.

Study Space

Like with a karaoke room, you could add some soundproofing equipment to keep sound out. With the already extra-thick walls, floor and ceiling, you would have a quiet enough place perfect for students to do their studying.

Students won’t have to go online to check the crowd levels at their closest library anymore!

Again, remember to maintain good air circulation in the room by removing the ventilation cover, otherwise, a bit of flatus may fill the whole room up with a nasty smell!

Of course, you probably don’t want to eat into their lunch money, and with such a small space you can’t seat more than one or two students at a time, so the cash you could make from such a venture would be limited.

Storage Space Rental

Probably one of the most hassle-free options out of them all.

All you’d need is some dedicated shelving and storage racks to store your renter’s items.

Again, remember to maintain good airflow by removing the ventilation cover, otherwise, mould could build up.

You could go the extra mile and install a portable A/C unit, although you’ll have to do a cost-benefit analysis to determine if the electricity costs are worth it.

One of the advantages over the other choices on this page is that there would be far less foot traffic in and out of your flat, so you won’t have to keep an eye on your customers.

At Cubbiq you can list your bomb shelter as a storage space without any start-up fees or restrictions.

Conclusion

The above are just some ideas of how you could monetise your shelter. The possibilities are endless, although renting it out as storage space is undoubtedly one of the easiest options out there.

New year, new resolutions. “Make some easy money” surely must be one of them!