Renting an apartment in Singapore

Budget S$7,168 ($5,640) before keys to a S$3,500 flat on a twelve-month lease. That is a month of deposit, a month in advance, and S$168 of lease duty. The duty is 0.4% of the rent over the whole term. Where the bottom-of-market custom bites, the agent's half month takes it to S$9,076 ($7,150). Figures are September 2026.

Current at 9 September 2026. Dollars at SGD 1.27 to US$1, the rate of 8 September 2026.

The lease duty nobody raises until you have signed

You pay stamp duty on your own tenancy agreement. It is 0.4% of the total rent across the whole term, due within 14 days of signing. A S$4,000 flat on a 24-month lease is S$96,000 of rent, so S$384 ($302). It is the last line of cash in moving to Singapore anyone mentions. CHECK The rate is long-standing, but the tax authority's rate page is not machine-readable, so this figure rests on agent practice.

It is not the buyer's duty. That one is 60% on top of the price, under the foreigner stamp duty rules.

Two rules gate the lease. Your pass must be valid, and the Employment Pass salary floors decide whether you hold one. And private housing has a minimum let of three consecutive months under the Planning Act. Anything shorter is illegal short-term accommodation, with a fine of up to S$5,000 at a minimum, and heavier court fines for repeat offenders (URA, updated 15 June 2026). Public flats need six months.

What you hand over before you get keys

The deposit is one month per year of lease, plus the first month in advance (Singapore, honestly, September 2026).

Sign for 24 months and the deposit doubles to S$7,000. With the advance month and S$336 of duty, that is S$10,836 ($8,530).

A landlord pays their own agent half a month on a one-year lease, one month on a two-year. You pay only your own agent.

A good-faith deposit of one month goes down with the Letter of Intent, and converts into the security deposit.

Two costs are not yours. Maintenance fees of S$300–800 a month belong to the owner. And cap your repair liability in writing — the standard clause bills you up to S$150–300 an item.

The meter is not rigged, and the tariff resets every quarter

You open your own account with SP Group and pay the regulated tariff. There is no re-billing and no resort rate.

The tariff is 34.78 cents a kWh including tax, set for 1 July to 30 September 2026 (SP Group tariff table, read 10 September 2026). It resets quarterly, with the next reset at the end of September.

Switch to a retailer on the Open Electricity Market and pay roughly 10 to 20% below tariff. At 500 kWh, the tariff runs S$174 ($137); the open market saves S$209 to S$417 a year ($165–328). Geneco, Keppel, Senoko, Sembcorp, PacificLight and Union Power all sell to households.

A two-bedroom condo running one or two air conditioners at night uses 400 to 700 kWh a month, so S$140–245 ($110–193) at the current tariff. Add water and gas and you land at S$200–300 ($157–236). A public flat on fans alone runs S$80–130 ($63–102).

Water is S$1.56 a cubic metre up to 40 m³ and S$1.97 above it, tax included (SP Group, Q3 2026). That is the tariff line alone. Add the water conservation tax and the waterborne fee and a cubic metre costs S$3.24–3.50 all-in, the figure the book quotes. CHECK PUB publishes its rate table as an image, so no machine can read the all-in price.

SP asks a foreigner for a deposit of about S$200 on a public flat, S$500 on a private one. CHECK Neither figure could be confirmed against SP's page.

Internet is never included. Fibre at 1 to 2 Gbps costs S$30–50 ($24–39).

"Fully furnished" has a definition here, "partially" a shorter one

Partially furnished means air conditioning, kitchen appliances, wardrobes, curtains and a water heater. Fully furnished adds beds, a sofa and a television. Studios and one-bedrooms are usually fully furnished — family units usually not (Singapore, honestly, September 2026).

Get the inventory into the agreement, item by item. Air-conditioner servicing is quarterly, and the tenant pays about S$30–40 a unit. Four units cost S$480 to S$640 a year.

Three to eight per cent comes off in the suburbs, nothing in prime

Ask for 3 to 8% off asking outside the centre. In prime districts, expect zero to three (Singapore, honestly, September 2026). Five per cent off S$3,500 is S$175 a month, S$2,100 a year ($1,654).

The market behind it: the private rental index rose 0.3% in the first quarter of 2026 and 0.7% in the second. All of the movement was prime. Core central rents rose 1.2%, the city fringe was flat, and the suburbs fell 0.3% (URA, 24 July 2026).

CHECK URA's vacancy figures point the other way. Vacancy in completed private units is 6.4%, up from 6.2% and above the roughly 5.5% peak in 2023 — 8.3% in the core central region, 6.1% in the city fringe and 5.6% in the suburbs. Empty prime stock has not become a prime discount, so read the 0–3% as custom, not a rule.

Only 1,611 private units completed in the first half of 2026, against 2,329 a year earlier, with about 5,000 due in the second half (URA, 24 July 2026). Landlords prefer 24-month leases and trade rent for term. Ask for fresh paint and a clean rather than a cash cut.

Singapore, honestly runs the seven steps from shortlist to keys, and names the four clauses to settle in the Letter of Intent before your deposit moves.

Four portals carry almost every listing

PropertyGuru is the largest; 99.co carries SRX data and EdgeProp carries transaction data, so you can check an asking rent. Rooms go on Carousell Property, public flats on the HDB portal.

Serviced apartments take stays from seven days, bridging the three-month minimum.

Two clocks start the day you sign, at different lengths

Stamp the tenancy agreement within 14 days. You pay it, not the landlord.

Then update your address. Employment Pass and S Pass holders have five days, through the manpower ministry (MOM, updated 16 May 2025). Dependant's Pass, long-term visit pass and student's pass holders have 14 days, set by the Immigration Regulations. Citizens and permanent residents have 28 days, under the National Registration Act.

A public flat adds a duty that is the landlord's. The housing board must approve you before you move in. Ask to see the letter, and check the non-citizen quota — 8% of a neighbourhood, 11% of a block, often full in Queenstown, Bukit Merah and Jurong West. Occupancy is capped at six people for four-room flats and larger, raised to eight until 31 December 2028, pushed back from an initial 2026 date. Private landlords must register the flat and pay a S$20 fee first (HDB; URA, updated 15 June 2026). Where foreigners actually live covers which towns run full.

No police registration exists here, and no 90-day report.

Two scams take the deposit, and four checks stop both

The copied listing. Photographs lifted from a real advertisement, reposted well under market rent, with a deposit demanded before viewing. The unit is real. The person collecting is not.

The landlord who is overseas. The owner is said to be abroad, so you wire the deposit and the keys get couriered. They do not. Regulators and police warned on both through 2024 and 2025.

Four defences. They cost almost nothing.

1. Never pay before you have stood inside the unit.
2. Check the agent on the Council for Estate Agencies public register. It is free, and an unregistered agent cannot legally act.
3. Pay only the person named on the title. A land-authority title search costs a few dollars.
4. Insist on a written Letter of Intent before money moves.

One softer trap. Landlords' agents at the bottom of the market often ask the tenant to pay their half-month fee, on rents around S$3,500 and below. CHECK That is custom, not law — the regulator bans dual representation but does not set fees. It is negotiable.

Related

What you sign for depends on the area. The nine areas foreigners actually live in gives the rent and the honest drawback of each. Still choosing? Compare all ten cities first.