Heartland Enterprise Placemaking Grant (HEPG) 2026: Eligibility, Funding, and How to Apply

If you run a shop, café, or trade in one of Singapore’s heartland neighbourhoods, you have probably watched a nearby mall or business improvement district organise a festival, art trail, or workshop series that pulled in footfall for an entire week. The Heartland Enterprise Placemaking Grant (HEPG), administered by Enterprise Singapore under the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), exists to help ordinary heartland merchants do exactly that — without having to foot the whole bill themselves.

Since Budget 2026, the HEPG has become considerably more generous: support was raised from 50% of eligible cost (capped at S$10,000 per project) to up to 70% of eligible cost (capped at S$14,000 per project), effective 1 April 2026. For small retailers, food and beverage operators, and service businesses in the heartlands, this is one of the more accessible and specific grants on offer — but it is also narrowly scoped, and Enterprise Singapore is explicit about what it will and will not fund.

This guide walks through who qualifies, what counts as an eligible placemaking activity, how the application process works, and where the HEPG fits alongside other Singapore government grants your business may already be using.

What Is the Heartland Enterprise Placemaking Grant?

The HEPG is a project-based grant for heartland merchants who want to organise activities that draw the community together and refresh the character of their neighbourhood — think community engagement events, public art installations, hands-on workshops, and thematic festivals. Full programme details, including the current eligibility criteria and supportable cost categories, are published on Enterprise Singapore’s official HEPG page. It sits within Enterprise Singapore’s broader suite of Heartland Enterprises programmes, alongside initiatives such as the Enhanced Visual Merchandising Programme and the Heartland Innovation and Transformation Programme (HIT).

Successful applicants also receive a complimentary one-to-one advisory session to help scope and strengthen their project proposal before submission.

Funding Quantum

Note that each company is generally only able to tap the HEPG once, so it is worth taking the time to design a project that maximises impact rather than rushing an application through.

Who Is Eligible

Enterprise Singapore sets four eligibility criteria for the HEPG, and a business must meet all of them:

The “physical storefront in the heartlands” requirement is worth dwelling on — the HEPG is not designed for e-commerce-only businesses or head-office entities without a shopfront presence in a heartland town centre or neighbourhood precinct. If your company is structured with a holding entity and an operating subsidiary, make sure the applicant entity is the one that actually holds the lease and runs the shop. For groups juggling multiple entities and thinking about how ownership and shareholding thresholds interact with grant eligibility, it is worth reviewing your company’s ACRA filings and shareholding structure before applying, since Enterprise Singapore will check these against Bizfile records.

What Counts as an Eligible Placemaking Activity

The HEPG is deliberately targeted at activities that build community identity and draw visitors to a heartland precinct, rather than routine promotional spend. Enterprise Singapore’s factsheet gives four illustrative categories:

• Community engagement activities — events that bring residents, merchants, and visitors together, such as heritage trails, storytelling sessions, or neighbourhood clean-up-and-celebrate days.
• Public art installations — murals, sculptures, or interactive art pieces that give a precinct a distinctive visual identity.
• Workshops — hands-on sessions (craft-making, cooking demonstrations, skills-sharing) that showcase local trades and encourage repeat visits.
• Thematic festivals — curated, story-led events built around a specific theme, rather than generic sales promotions.

Supportable Costs

Within an approved project, the HEPG will co-fund:

• Third-party consultancy fees
• Hardware, equipment, and software needed for the activity
• Marketing costs directly tied to the project
• Professional services, such as event management, branding and creative work, and audit fees

What the HEPG Will Not Fund

Enterprise Singapore has been specific that the HEPG does not support:

• General operational costs of running the business
• Activities that are already common in the heartlands, such as festive light-ups, bazaars, and traditional night markets

This distinction matters at the application stage. A generic Chinese New Year bazaar or a standard festive light-up is unlikely to be approved on its own; you will need to demonstrate that your proposed activity is genuinely novel for your precinct — for example, pairing a seasonal bazaar with a curated public art trail or a ticketed heritage workshop series would strengthen the application considerably.

How to Apply

Applications are supported through the Heartland Enterprise Centre Singapore (HECS), which acts as Enterprise Singapore’s on-the-ground partner for heartland merchants. In practice, the process looks like this:

1. Initial consultation. Contact HECS for a free advisory session to discuss your project idea and confirm eligibility.
2. Project scoping. Develop a clear project description, timeline, and list of eligible cost items with supporting vendor quotations.
3. Formal application. Submit company information (Bizfile extract, shareholding, turnover or headcount data), the project proposal, and cost breakdown.
4. Assessment and approval. Enterprise Singapore assesses the proposal against eligibility and the “genuinely placemaking” test.
5. Implementation and claims. Run the approved activity, then submit invoices and proof of payment to claim disbursement, typically up to the approved percentage and cap.

Because the grant is capped and available once per company, it pays to get the advisory session in early rather than submitting a rushed application close to a festive calendar deadline. Enterprise Singapore’s own FAQ on the scheme, which sets out the policy rationale and supportable activities in more detail, is available here.

Worked Example

Consider “Toa Payoh Heritage Kopi Co.”, a small family-run coffee shop with a single outlet, SG-incorporated, 100% locally owned, with four employees and no formal group turnover to speak of. It wants to run a two-weekend “Heritage Lane” trail: a public mural on its shopfront wall, three craft workshops (traditional kopi-brewing, rattan weaving, and calligraphy), and an evening storytelling session for residents.

At 70% support, this would work out to S$14,000 — but because that is exactly the project cap, Toa Payoh Heritage Kopi Co. receives S$14,000 in grant support and funds the remaining S$6,000 from its own pocket. Had the total eligible cost been S$18,000 instead, 70% would come to S$12,600, comfortably under the cap, and the business would only need to co-fund S$5,400. This illustrates why it is worth right-sizing the project scope against the S$14,000 ceiling rather than over-engineering the proposal.

How the HEPG Fits Alongside Other SME Grants

The HEPG is narrow by design — it will not fund your point-of-sale system, staff training, or digital transformation roadmap. For those needs, heartland merchants typically look to broader schemes such as the Enterprise Development Grant (EDG) for capability upgrading projects, or compare options using our guide to EDG vs PSG vs MRA to work out which grant matches your project type. If cash flow rather than grant co-funding is the constraint, the Enterprise Financing Scheme (EFS) may help bridge working capital needs while a placemaking project is underway.

Because most SMEs are running more than one grant application at any given time, it is worth reading our multi-grant stacking strategy guide before you apply, so that your HEPG project does not inadvertently overlap with cost items already claimed under another scheme. Enterprise Singapore does not allow double funding of the same cost item across grants, so keep your cost breakdowns cleanly separated from the outset. For a broader roundup of grants and funding options available to Singapore SMEs, Little Big Red Dot’s grants directory is a useful independent reference point.

Many heartland merchants are in the food and beverage trade, where placemaking activities often intersect with licensing and compliance matters. If that applies to you, our compliance guide for Singapore F&B companies is a useful companion read, particularly if your workshop or festival involves food sampling, temporary structures, or extended operating hours that may require additional permits.

Practical Tips Before You Apply

• Confirm your shopfront address matches your Bizfile registered particulars — mismatches are a common reason for delayed assessments.
• Get vendor quotations early. Enterprise Singapore expects a credible, itemised cost breakdown, not estimates.
• Design for novelty, not repetition. A proposal that simply replicates last year’s bazaar is unlikely to succeed; build in a genuine community or artistic angle.
• Plan your cash flow. The HEPG reimburses after the event, based on submitted invoices, so you will need to fund the full project cost upfront and claim later. Businesses that want a broader view of sound financial management around grant-funded projects should build this timing gap into their cash flow forecast well before committing to vendor contracts.
• Use your one free application wisely — since most companies can only tap the HEPG once, treat the advisory session as a genuine design workshop rather than a formality.

Conclusion

The Heartland Enterprise Placemaking Grant is a modest but meaningful scheme for heartland merchants who want to do more than just discount their way through a slow season. With support now raised to 70% and up to S$14,000 per project from 1 April 2026, it is worth a serious look if your business has a genuine community-building idea — a mural, a workshop series, a festival with a story behind it. Pair it thoughtfully with your other compliance and financing plans, and it can meaningfully offset the cost of putting your neighbourhood, and your shopfront, on the map.

If you need help getting your company’s Bizfile particulars, shareholding structure, or group turnover documentation in order before you apply for the HEPG or any other Enterprise Singapore grant, the team at Raffles Corporate Services can help make sure your corporate records are accurate and ready for assessment.

To speak with the team at Raffles Corporate Services, you can email [email protected] or call, SMS, or WhatsApp +65 8501 7133. We are happy to assist with any queries.

— The Editorial Team, Raffles Corporate Services