Open Kitchen in an HDB: Rules, Cost & Ventilation (2026)

Converting to an open kitchen in an HDB flat costs S$15,000–40,000 all-in and needs an HDB hacking permit — plus a Professional Engineer's endorsement if the wall carries any structural load. The design payoff is real, and so is the trade-off nobody's renders show: cooking smells with nowhere to go.

Here's the full picture — rules, costs, ventilation truth-telling, and the half-open compromises that often beat the full hack.

Can you hack the kitchen wall in an HDB flat?

Usually yes, with a permit — most kitchen entrance walls in HDB flats are non-structural, but never assume: the contractor's submission and HDB's approval settle it, and structural walls are off-limits entirely. Some newer BTO layouts arrive open-concept ready, with the "wall" already optional or absent. Older resale blocks vary block by block, which is one more reason the permit process in our HDB permit guide isn't a formality.

What does an open kitchen conversion cost?

S$15,000–40,000 for the full conversion, broken roughly as:

• Hacking, disposal and making good: S$1,500–4,000
• Floor patching and unification: S$1,500–4,000 — the kitchen and living floors rarely match, and the junction line must disappear
• Island or peninsula counter with services: S$4,000–12,000 depending on stone and whether plumbing/power relocates into it
• Rerouted electrical and lighting: S$1,500–3,500
• Ventilation upgrade: S$800–3,000 for a high-extraction hood, ideally ducted

For context inside the whole-kitchen budget, our kitchen renovation cost guide covers the rest of the room.

What about cooking smells — honestly?

If your household wok-fries, deep-fries or cooks rempah weekly, a fully open kitchen will share it with the sofa, the curtains and tomorrow's laundry. No hood fully solves this. High-extraction hoods (1,000+ m³/h, ducted rather than recirculating) manage occasional heavy cooking; they don't erase daily heavy cooking. The households happiest with fully open kitchens either cook light or treat heavy sessions as service-yard work on a second hob.

What are the half-open alternatives?

Glass partitions deliver most of the light and connection with none of the smell — which is why they've become our default recommendation for serious cooks.

• Glass servery window: at our Chai Chee Road project, a black-framed glass servery with a bar ledge gives the kitchen a visual connection to the living room and a pass-through counter — and closes fully when the wok comes out
• Framed glass sliding doors: open 90% of the time, sealed when it matters; budget S$3,500–8,000
• Half-wall with counter: keeps services in a stub wall, cheaper than full hacking, no PE involvement

Is an open kitchen worth it for resale?

It's neutral to mildly positive — buyers respond to the brightness, but some families specifically want a closed kitchen back. A glass-partition solution is the hedge: it photographs open and functions closed. What genuinely hurts resale is an amateur conversion — mismatched floors at the old wall line, an island with no power, a hob far from the extraction. If you're weighing the works, an itemised quotation against your actual floor plan beats any package price; layout-stage thinking is where our HDB interior design service earns its keep.

The bottom line

Open kitchens are a lifestyle decision dressed as a design one: budget S$15,000–40,000, get the permit, duct the hood — and if your cooking is the reason people love coming over, put glass in the opening and have it both ways.