Your first move in Singapore: from a serviced apartment into a rental

If you’ve arrived on a pass and are living in a serviced apartment, your first long-term rental, whether a condo or a Housing & Development Board (HDB) flat, has several moving parts: a tenancy to agree and stamp, utilities to open, building rules to follow, a sea shipment to receive and your own things to bring across. Doing them in the right order stops them colliding.

Private homes can’t be let for less than three consecutive months, so shorter stays are in hotels or serviced apartments. The Urban Redevelopment Authority notes that serviced apartments have a minimum stay of seven days, so plan your check-out date around the handover of your new flat.

The order, at a glance

Before you sign: letter of intent and tenancy agreement

Start by checking the listing is real. The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA), with which every property agent must be registered, advises you to search the agent’s phone number on its public register, view the property in person before paying anything, and pay the owner directly, by a verifiable method such as bank transfer, rather than the agent. Its tenant checklist lists the checks to make first: the landlord’s name, that they own the property and that it’s approved for residential use.

You may be asked to sign a letter of intent (LOI), which CEA describes as a preliminary agreement before a deal is finalised. The tenancy agreement comes next. CEA publishes a recommended template, which isn’t compulsory, and the terms are negotiable. Get what matters to you written in at this stage:

• a handover date that leaves time to set up utilities before your shipment arrives
• a diplomatic clause, if your posting could end early (see our guide to the diplomatic clause)
• anything the landlord will repair or provide before handover, which the template has space for
• the length of the “problem-free period”, during which the landlord fixes defects you report in writing.

The security deposit is paid on signing. CEA’s template leaves the number of months blank; for HDB flats, HDB says it’s usually one month’s rent for a one-year tenancy and two months’ for two years. A property agent’s role ends once the agreement is signed and the property handed over, so settle anything you need the agent’s help with before then.

If you’re renting an HDB flat

You need an eligible pass, such as an Employment Pass (EP), S Pass or Dependant’s Pass (DP), valid for at least six months when the owner applies to HDB. Whole-flat rentals to non-Malaysian non-citizens, including permanent residents (PRs), are subject to HDB’s Non-Citizen Quota for each block and neighbourhood. The minimum rental period is six months, and each approval covers up to two years if any tenant is a non-Malaysian non-citizen. HDB suggests making your contract valid only if the owner gets its approval, and you can check online that you’re registered as an authorised tenant.

Stamping the tenancy agreement

Stamp duty is payable on tenancy agreements. If yours doesn’t say who pays, the tenant is liable under the Stamp Duties Act, according to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS). For a lease of up to four years, the duty is 0.4% of the total rent for the lease, based on the contract or market rent, whichever is higher, and IRAS counts furniture and maintenance charges as rent. There’s no duty if the average annual rent is S$1,000 or less.

The agreement must be stamped, through myTax Portal, within 14 days of signing if it was signed in Singapore, or within 30 days of being received in Singapore if it was signed overseas. Late stamping brings a penalty: the greater of S$10 or the duty itself within three months, and the greater of S$25 or four times the duty after that. Keep the stamp certificate, which proves the agreement has been stamped.

Utilities and internet

You open your utilities account with SP Group, through its app, website or customer service centre. You need to be 18 or over, with identification and proof of tenancy, and the security deposit is charged to your first bill. Foreigners pay more than Singaporeans and PRs: for a condominium or private apartment it’s S$200 if you pay by GIRO (automatic bank deduction) or S$300 if you don’t, and for an HDB 3-, 4- or 5-room flat it’s S$140 or S$200.

If the supply needs turning on, you book a turn-on appointment when you apply. SP Group asks for a week’s lead time, carries out a safety inspection on site for resale HDB flats and other homes, and needs the account holder or a representative there. Gas, if your flat has it, is turned on separately by City Energy, by appointment, once SP Group confirms your account. You can buy electricity from a retailer instead of SP Group, but you still need the SP Group utilities account.

Broadband is separate. Order it as soon as you know the address and handover date, as installation may need an appointment and lead times vary between providers and buildings.

Move-in rules: condo or HDB block

In a condo, the rules for moving in come from the development’s management corporation strata title (MCST). The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) says an MCST can make by-laws to control and manage how common property is used. CEA’s template requires tenants to follow them. The rules vary from building to building, so before you book either delivery, ask the management office whether you need to:

• register the move or get a permit
• book the service lift or loading bay, and for how long
• move on particular days or within set hours
• pay a refundable deposit, and what it covers
• protect lifts and corridors, or dispose of packing materials in a set way.

Give the office both dates: the international delivery and the move from your serviced apartment.

An HDB block has no MCST. Its common property, including lifts and corridors, is managed by the town council. Ask your landlord whether there’s anything to arrange before moving day.

Coordinating your sea shipment with the move-in date

Singapore Customs deals with you or your appointed agent, such as a shipping or forwarding agent, so ask your mover who their agent in Singapore is and what they need from you. Customs can grant relief from GST (goods and services tax) on used household goods if you’re relocating here, own the items, have used them for at least three months, won’t sell or give them away within three months of arrival, and import them within six months of first arriving in Singapore.

You or your agent must submit a Declaration of Facts before the shipment arrives, with your passport, proof of your move such as your pass, and the bill of lading. If the goods have already arrived, Customs rejects the application and GST becomes payable. Some items also need approval from other authorities. Once relief is approved, the agent collects the shipment from the port, and you usually don’t need to be there.

Give your mover the address, handover date and building rules as soon as you have them. If the shipment will land before you have the keys, ask about storage and redelivery, and what each adds to the cost. Book the lift for the delivery slot, and be there with the mover’s inventory to check items off. If you need a Singapore mover or relocation company, our directory lists them.

At handover: the inventory and condition report

CEA’s template has the landlord prepare an inventory list in duplicate at handover for you to sign. You prepare a property condition report, with photos, covering floors, walls, ceilings, doors, lights, windows, curtains, appliances and furniture; the template’s form says within 30 days. Do the walk-through before the boxes arrive, while every surface is visible.

Under the template, both documents are conclusive evidence of the flat’s condition at the start, which is what you’ll be measured against when you leave. Report defects in writing during the problem-free period, when the landlord is responsible for fixing them. The template also has you take out an air-conditioner service contract, with servicing at least every three months, and send the landlord a copy within 30 days.

The template says the landlord isn’t liable for loss of or damage to your belongings, so consider contents insurance.

Moving your things from the serviced apartment

Your international mover handles the shipment, but what you’ve gathered since arriving, from suitcases to first purchases, may not be covered, so check the quote. If it isn’t, HomeToMoved (run by the same team as Relocado) matches you with vetted, insured movers for moves within Singapore, whether you’re moving into a condo or an HDB flat. It doesn’t handle international moves.

Book the move for a slot the building allows and before your serviced apartment check-out, so you’re not paying for both places for longer than you need to.

Registering your new address

If you hold an Employment Pass, S Pass, Dependant’s Pass or Long-Term Visit Pass issued by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), MOM must be told of a change in residential address within 5 days. The pass holder, employer or sponsor can do it in EP eService, where the update is immediate; print the acknowledgement and keep it with your pass card. MOM says the pass holder may be penalised otherwise.

Permanent residents must report a change of address to the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) within 28 days, using its online service with Singpass. ICA posts a PIN to the new address to verify it, then sends a sticker with the new address for the back of your identity card.

Relocado is run by the team behind Junk to Clear, HomeToMoved and HomeToClean. Where this guide links to one of them, it’s because the step calls for that service, and we say so in the sentence. Enquiries sent through the form go to the same team. How Relocado works