How Much Does Renovation Cost in Singapore?

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How much does renovation cost in Singapore in 2026?

Most homeowners spend between S$44,000 and S$99,000 renovating an HDB flat in 2026. A new four-room BTO typically costs S$44,000 to S$62,000, while the same flat bought resale runs S$62,000 to S$82,000. Condominiums are priced per square foot — roughly S$42 to S$62 for a new unit, S$75 to S$110 for resale. Landed interiors start around S$120,000.

Two things move that number more than anything else: whether the property is new or resale, and how much of the budget goes to carpentry.

These are indicative ranges for a standard renovation — full carpentry, new kitchen, new bathrooms. They reflect 2026 Singapore market benchmarks and are consistent with what we see across our own completed projects. A light refresh sits below them; designer-led work with bespoke joinery sits above. Use the calculator above for a figure matched to your property.

HDB renovation cost by flat type

HDB flats account for roughly eight in ten homes in Singapore, and they are where renovation costs are most predictable — the layouts are standardised, the sizes are known, and the work is largely the same from unit to unit.

The single largest variable is tenure. A resale flat costs 25% to 40% more to renovate than the equivalent BTO, and the reason is not that the design is more ambitious. It is that you are paying to undo someone else's renovation before you begin your own.

In a BTO, the walls are bare and square, the wiring is new, and the bathrooms have an intact waterproofing membrane. In a resale flat, the old carpentry has to come out, the tiles come off, the wiring is often two decades old and no longer sized for the number of appliances a modern household runs, and once the bathroom tiles are hacked the waterproofing has to be reinstated and pass a water ponding test before tiling can start. Hacking and demolition alone typically rise from around 5% of a BTO budget to 8% of a resale one, and every trade downstream is affected by what the hacking uncovers.

The three-day rule bites harder on resale, too. HDB confines noisy works — hacking, drilling, demolition — to weekday daytime hours and requires them to be finished within three consecutive days, regardless of how much there is to remove. A BTO has almost nothing to clear. A resale flat may have two decades of carpentry, tiling and floor finishes to strip out against the same three-day clock, which means a larger demolition crew and more disposal runs rather than a longer schedule. Overall, both aim for a twelve-week programme, with resale more often running past it than under it.

Executive apartments, maisonettes and jumbo flats exist only as resale stock — HDB no longer builds them — so there is no BTO column for those. Maisonettes carry a further premium beyond their floor area, because two storeys means an internal staircase, additional wet areas, and considerably longer electrical and plumbing runs.

Condominium renovation cost

Condominiums are priced per square foot rather than by unit type, because floor area varies enormously for the same bedroom count — a three-bedroom unit can be 900 square feet or 1,600.

The gap between new and resale is far wider here than it is in HDB flats, and for a straightforward reason: a developer hands over a new condominium with flooring laid, kitchen carcasses installed, wardrobes fitted, sanitary ware in place and often air-conditioning already running. Renovating a new unit is mostly additive — extra carpentry, a feature wall, upgrading finishes you don't like. Renovating a resale unit means removing all of that first, then building again. You are paying twice for the same square footage.

What the MCST controls, and what it costs you

Strata-titled properties require written approval from the MCST before works begin, and where structural works are involved that approval must be in hand before a BCA submission can even be made — it is sequential, not parallel.

Most estates hold a refundable deposit against damage to common property — commonly S$1,000 to S$3,000, though larger scopes can run to S$10,000, with a separate non-refundable administration fee of roughly S$200 to S$500 on top. It is released after a joint inspection confirms no damage and that debris has been cleared, so treat it as cash tied up for the full length of the project rather than a fee.

Working hours are tighter than HDB's and they are a permit condition, not a courtesy. The common pattern is 9am to 5pm on weekdays and 9am to 1pm on Saturdays, with nothing on Sundays or public holidays, and most estates impose a lunchtime quiet period as well. Every development sets its own by-laws under the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act, so there is no universal condo rulebook — the figures above are the shape, not the rule. Approval itself typically takes five to ten working days, but a submission that needs revision adds two to three weeks per cycle, which is why incomplete drawings are the most expensive corner anyone cuts on a condo project.

Then there is access. Materials go up a booked service lift on a schedule, common corridors and lift lobbies must be protected, and debris usually has to leave the site daily because skips are rarely permitted on the grounds. None of this changes the specification. All of it consumes labour hours, and labour hours are what you are actually buying.

One more thing worth knowing: relocating a bathroom or kitchen is often restricted, because the waterproofing liability runs downwards to the unit below.

Landed property renovation cost

"Landed renovation" covers two projects that share almost nothing. An interior renovation leaves the structure alone and behaves like a very large condominium job. An A&A or reconstruction touches the structure, the building envelope or the gross floor area — and costs roughly ten times more.

The moment a project crosses into the second category, the regulatory path becomes the schedule. Building plans must be submitted to BCA through a Qualified Person — a registered architect or professional engineer holding a valid practising certificate — and that QP must obtain written permission from URA before applying for building plan approval. The two approvals run in sequence, not alongside each other.

Realistically: URA written permission takes six to eight weeks for a straightforward landed submission, longer for conservation properties or Good Class Bungalows. BCA's first plan-check response takes fourteen to twenty-eight working days, and roughly 60% of submissions receive a rejection letter on the first round, with each further round adding another fourteen to twenty-eight working days. Most landed schemes clear in two to three rounds. From planning submission to Permit to Commence Building Works, twelve to twenty weeks is normal, and conservation or GCB projects routinely exceed twenty.

That window is the cost item nobody budgets. You may be servicing a loan on an empty house, or renting elsewhere, for four or five months before a single wall comes down — and it rarely appears anywhere in a renovation quotation.

One distinction worth settling before you fall in love with a design: URA and BCA do not assess proposals as "minor" or "major". They assess thresholds — approved gross floor area, the extent of wall replacement, structural reconstruction, site controls and conservation status. A scheme that feels like an ambitious renovation can cross into reconstruction in substance, which changes both the approval route and the entire cost base.

The appointment sits with you, not with your contractor. The QP carries personal statutory liability for what is submitted, which is why the Building Control Act puts the responsibility on the owner — the submission has to be made in your name. Zenith Arc works alongside your QP throughout: coordinating drawings, aligning the design with what URA and BCA will accept, and sequencing the submission so site works start the week the permit lands rather than a month after it.

Commercial fit-out cost

The spread across use types is wider than any other property category, because the phrase covers very different buildings. An office is partitions, ceiling, power and data. An F&B unit is grease traps, exhaust ductwork, gas, floor waterproofing and a kitchen that costs more per square foot than the dining room it serves.

Three approvals that decide the programme

Landlord or MCST consent comes first, before any authority submission. Expect house rules, a fit-out deposit, insurance requirements and — in most managed buildings — a list of nominated contractors you must use for M&E work, whether or not they are competitive.

SCDF is triggered by more than people expect. Even minor fit-out works can require submission if they affect means of escape, fire compartmentation or fire protection systems. Adding a partition to an existing office may go through a Minor Addition and Alteration route, but a change of use — or partitioning works for a restaurant — requires a full building plan submission and an inspection by an SCDF Registered Inspector. Budget two to four weeks for this on affected projects.

URA change of use must be settled before anything else moves. BCA will not process a building plan that conflicts with the approved use classification. This is what catches tenants who sign a lease assuming an office can become a clinic, a showroom or a café.

How long each use actually takes

An F&B outlet needs roughly 16 to 32 weeks once kitchen services, SFA licensing, exhaust, drainage and fire safety coordination are in play. A clinic runs 14 to 32 weeks under HCSA licensing. Childcare and preschool premises run 18 to 40 weeks. Industrial and warehouse sits at 9 to 26 weeks. These clocks start when the brief is genuinely settled — if the menu, the medical services or the room count are still moving, the programme has not started.

The F&B sequence catches people hardest. SFA issues an In-Principle Approval, and only then may renovation proceed — and the documents required for that approval include URA's change of use. SFA also reviews the scaled kitchen layout as part of the licence, which means your kitchen plan is a licensing document before it is a design. PUB governs sanitary plumbing and grease traps, NEA covers kitchen exhaust and ventilation, and regulated electrical work must go through a Licensed Electrical Worker.

A one-month rent-free fitting period does not mean the unit can open in a month.

The cost almost nobody prices

Reinstatement typically runs S$8 to S$25 per square foot depending on how much has to come out — roughly 10% to 15% of what the original fit-out cost. Bare-shell handovers and technical premises run well above that.

But the per-square-foot framing is misleading, and it is worth understanding why. The price is driven by what was installed and by the landlord's reinstatement schedule for what must be removed — floor area is almost irrelevant. Two 3,000 square foot offices, one with drywall partitions and a basic ceiling, the other with floor-to-ceiling glass, raised access flooring and a server room, produce entirely different quotations.

The practical consequence: the more bespoke your fit-out, the larger the bill you are writing yourself for the end of the lease. That belongs in the conversation on day one, not year three.

Where the renovation budget actually goes

Two lines account for roughly 60% of a residential renovation: carpentry at 35–38%, and masonry, tiling and flooring at 22%. Everything else — electrical, plumbing, ceiling, painting, doors, disposal — divides the remaining 40% between nine trades.

This matters because of where people look for savings. Most homeowners negotiate hardest on tile prices and paint brands, which together move perhaps 5% of the total. The carpentry run moves a third of it. A wall of full-height built-in wardrobes and a wall of freestanding ones can differ by five figures on a four-room flat, and no amount of tile negotiation closes that gap.

Resale flats shift the balance slightly: hacking and demolition rises from 5% to 8%, and carpentry falls proportionally — not because there is less of it, but because the total is larger.

Commercial fit-outs invert the picture entirely. Mechanical and electrical leads at around 23%, with partitions and doors at 21% and ceiling and lighting at 16%. Carpentry, the dominant line in a home, drops to about 12%. If you are budgeting an office the same way you budgeted your flat, you will get it wrong.

The five decisions that move your budget most

1. How much built-in carpentry

The largest single line, and the most elastic. Full-height, wall-to-wall, custom internals sits at one end; a shorter run with standard internals and some freestanding furniture sits at the other.

2. Whether you move walls

Hacking is cheap. What follows is not — new partitions, relocated power and lighting points, a reworked ceiling, patching and repainting the affected rooms. One wall rarely stays one line item.

3. Whether you move wet areas

The most expensive thing you can do per square foot. Relocating a bathroom or kitchen means new drainage falls, fresh waterproofing, a water ponding test, and — in a condominium — a liability conversation with the unit below. If the budget is tight, this is the first thing to give up.

4. Tile and stone selection

Not just the material price. Large-format tiles cost more to lay because they need flatter substrates and more careful handling, and wastage rises with format. The laying cost can exceed the tile cost.

5. Ceiling and lighting complexity

Cove lighting, bulkheads and dropped ceilings are individually modest and collectively significant, and they touch three trades — carpentry, electrical and painting — every time you add one.

What this estimate does not include

An indicative range covers construction. It does not cover:

• Furniture, curtains and loose fittings — often 10–20% of the construction budget again
• Appliances and sanitary ware — frequently carried as a provisional sum, meaning the figure moves when you choose
• Design fees, where charged separately from the build
• QP and submission fees on landed and commercial projects
• MCST or HDB deposits — refundable, but tied up for the whole project
• Contingency — allow 10–15%, more on resale and landed, where what you find behind a wall changes the plan
• Living costs during works — rent elsewhere, storage, or the loan on an empty property

A quotation that leaves these out is not cheaper than one that includes them. It is less complete, and the difference shows up later.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to renovate a four-room HDB flat?

S$44,000 to S$62,000 for a BTO and S$62,000 to S$82,000 for a resale flat at standard specification in 2026. A light refresh sits below; designer-led work with bespoke joinery sits above.

How long does a renovation take?

Around twelve weeks is the working standard for both new and resale, though scope moves it in either direction. Resale flats more often run past twelve weeks than under, because there is more to remove before anything can be built.

Why does a resale flat cost more than a BTO?

You pay to undo the previous renovation before starting your own — hacking, rewiring, reinstating waterproofing and passing a water ponding test before tiling can begin.

How much deposit should I pay?

With a CaseTrust-accredited firm, the deposit is capped at 20% of the total contract value. That cap is one of the more concrete protections accreditation gives you.

Can I use CPF to pay for renovation?

No. CPF savings cannot be used for renovation costs. Most homeowners use cash or a bank renovation loan.

Do I need a permit to renovate?

For HDB flats, yes, for a wide range of works — and the contractor must be on HDB's registered directory. For condominiums, written MCST approval. For landed structural works, URA written permission and BCA building plan approval through a Qualified Person.

Is renovation cost negotiable?

The scope is. Ask what comes out of the quotation to reach a lower number, rather than asking for the same scope at a lower price — the second question tends to be answered with thinner materials you won't see until later.

When should I start looking for a renovation firm?

Once your keys are confirmed. For landed A&A or commercial fit-outs, considerably earlier — approvals alone can run three to five months before site works begin.

Get a figure for your property

The calculator above gives you an indicative range in under a minute. For a firm number, we survey the property, walk the scope with you and quote against what is actually there — no obligation, and no charge for the consultation.

CaseTrust accredited, BCA registered, HDB licensed. Over 10,000 projects completed across HDB, condominium, landed and commercial properties in Singapore.

Estimates on this page are indicative ranges based on 2026 Singapore renovation cost benchmarks, last reviewed July 2026, and are not a quotation. Final pricing depends on a site survey, scope and material selection.