Heavy or light cooking shop: LPG, kitchen kit and neighbours upstairs

"Heavy cooking" is what landlords and contractors call kitchens that produce oily smoke and strong smells: wok frying, deep frying, grilling, charcoal and big stock pots. "Light cooking" covers coffee, baking, reheating, sandwiches, desserts and drinks. Heavy cooking needs a proper exhaust route above the roof or to the back, a grease trap, a gas supply and usually 3-phase power, and it is the first thing a landlord restricts when people live or work upstairs. Before you view seriously, ask the landlord in writing which class of cooking the unit allows.

Our guide to exhaust, 3-phase power and water covers the services checklist. This article is about the cooking class, gas and the neighbours.

There is no single legal definition, so the tenancy wording is what binds you. In practice:

If your menu sits in between, describe it honestly: "light frying only, no wok, no charcoal" is a common compromise clause.

• Units that already ran heavy kitchens. Ex-restaurants on established food rows keep the duct, gas point and trap.
• Corner and end units with a side wall for ducting and no neighbours on one side.
• Whole shoplots, where the landlord has no upstairs tenant to protect.
• Food streets and dense hubs such as Taman OUG, Kepong Baru and the Sri Petaling streets, where landlords expect F&B. See the Jalan Radin Bagus street page.

Avoid units under occupied homes unless the landlord confirms heavy cooking in writing.

Most ground floors in our hubs can take light cooking, because the smell and smoke are modest. The limits are usually power, water and drainage rather than exhaust. Read what shop a cafe or bubble tea shop needs, and browse units on the F&B shops page.

Takeover units. An F&B operator selling the business is selling a working kitchen, and goodwill adverts often reflect that. Before paying, confirm that the equipment belongs to the seller, not the landlord, that it works, and that the landlord will let you continue the same use. Our key money and goodwill guide explains how to value it.

Yes, most restaurants in our hubs do, but check three things:

1. Commercial cylinders. Since 1 May 2025 eateries may not use household subsidised cylinders and must use commercial cylinders (The Star, 27 May 2025).
2. Gas installation approval. A new gas installation, such as manifold piping from a cylinder bank to the kitchen, needs an Approval to Install from Suruhanjaya Tenaga under the Gas Supply Regulations 1997, applied for by a registered gas contractor (Suruhanjaya Tenaga website).
3. Fire safety and the landlord. Cylinder storage, ventilation and the fire certificate where it applies go through Bomba and the council's licensing. The landlord may also limit where cylinders sit.

Ask your registered gas contractor and the local Bomba office for the rules that apply to your unit. This is general information, not legal or safety advice.

Do not assume it. Back lanes are usually public land managed by the council, and placing compressors, cylinder cages or sinks there may need the council's permission. Many rows do have equipment in the lane, but a complaint can lead to an order to remove it. Ask the council and the landlord before you design the kitchen around the lane, and keep the lane clear for refuse lorries and fire access.

• Smoke and smell are the main source of complaints, so expect the landlord to require ducting that discharges above the roof, not at window height.
• Late-night noise from extraction fans and washing is a second source.
• Some landlords simply ban heavy cooking under residential floors.
• Complaints can reach the council and affect your licence renewal.