How much stamp duty is payable on a Singapore tenancy agreement?

For leases of four years or less, IRAS charges lease duty of 0.4% of the total rent over the lease period. Leases longer than four years or of indefinite term are charged 0.4% of four times the average annual rent. No duty is payable if the average annual rent does not exceed S$1,000. The document must be stamped within 14 days of signing in Singapore, or 30 days if signed overseas.

What does the minor repair clause make a tenant pay for?

The minor repair clause makes the tenant pay for small repairs up to a stated cap per item or per incident, commonly S$150 to S$300 in Singapore tenancy agreements, with the landlord paying anything above that figure. The cap is a market convention, not a legal rule, and it is negotiable before signing.

What is the minimum rental period allowed in Singapore?

URA requires every occupant of a private residential property to fulfil a minimum stay of three consecutive months. For an entire HDB flat the minimum is six months per tenancy, and the flat owner must obtain HDB's approval before the tenancy begins.

Renter's Guide

Tenancy Agreement Clauses Every Renter Should Know

By REINSTATE.by MCSG · Updated 14 August 2026 · 7 min read

Eight clauses decide how your Singapore tenancy ends: the security deposit, the minor repair clause, the reinstatement clause, the diplomatic clause, the occupancy cap, stamp duty, the inventory list, and notice and renewal. The rest of a standard tenancy agreement is boilerplate. Read those eight before you sign, because they are what your deposit turns on.

A Singapore tenancy agreement is a private contract, not a regulated form. There is no statutory template and no rent tribunal, so whatever the two parties sign is what governs the handover twelve or twenty-four months later. That is why the review has to happen before signature, not at move-out. Here is the clause-by-clause read, with the figures and rules that actually apply in 2026.

Which clauses matter most in a Singapore tenancy agreement?

Eight. The deposit, minor repair, reinstatement, diplomatic, occupancy, stamp duty, inventory and notice clauses carry almost all the financial risk in a residential lease. Every one of them is negotiable before signing, and none of them is fixed by statute.

The rental market is tight enough that tenants often skip this step. URA's data shows private residential rentals rose 0.7% in the second quarter of 2026, after a 0.3% rise in the first quarter, so units move quickly and agreements get signed under time pressure. Ten minutes on the table below is the cheapest insurance available.

Clause	What to check
Security deposit	Amount & return window
Minor repair	Cap per incident
Reinstatement	Scope & standard
Diplomatic	Trigger & notice
Occupancy	Named occupants
Stamp duty	Who pays
Inventory list	Attached & dated
Notice / renewal	Notice period

How large should the security deposit be, and when should it come back?

The Singapore convention is one month's rent for each year of the lease — one month for a one-year term, two months for a two-year term. It is a market norm, not a legal requirement, and no statute sets a deadline for its return, so the agreement itself must state one.

Because nothing in Singapore law compels a landlord to return a deposit by a fixed date, the single most useful edit a tenant can make is to write the deadline in: "the deposit shall be refunded within 14 days of handover, less agreed deductions." Without that sentence there is no date to enforce. Our guide on getting your full rental deposit back covers the evidence to gather alongside it.

What does the minor repair clause actually make you pay for?

It makes the tenant pay for small repairs up to a stated cap, commonly S$150 to S$300 per incident, with the landlord covering anything above. Check whether the cap is per item or per repair visit, and whether it resets monthly or applies across the whole term.

The wording matters more than the number. A clause reading "the first S$200 of each and every repair" is very different from "S$200 per month in aggregate" when an aircon compressor and a water heater fail in the same quarter. Ask for the per-incident version with an annual aggregate ceiling, and confirm separately who carries the servicing contract — our note on end-of-tenancy aircon servicing explains why that clause causes so many deductions.

What does the reinstatement clause commit you to?

It commits the tenant to returning the unit to its move-in condition, minus fair wear and tear — removing additions, patching, and repainting to the original standard. It is usually the largest single item in any end-of-lease bill and the most common source of deposit deductions.

Two words decide the cost: the standard and the baseline. "Good and tenantable repair, fair wear and tear excepted" is reasonable. "In the same condition as at commencement" without the wear-and-tear carve-out is not, and should be struck out. See the full breakdown in our guide to the reinstatement clause in a tenancy agreement, and the dividing line explained in fair wear and tear versus damage.

Can you end the lease early under the diplomatic clause?

Only if the clause is written in, and only on its stated trigger. The Singapore convention is that the tenant may terminate after twelve months of a two-year lease, giving two months' written notice plus proof of relocation or work-pass cancellation. There is no automatic statutory right to break a lease.

Watch for a reimbursement sub-clause requiring the tenant to refund a pro-rated share of the agent's commission on early termination — it is common and legitimate, but it should be capped and calculated on the unexpired term. Our diplomatic clause explainer works through the notice arithmetic.

How long must the lease run, and how many people can live there?

Every occupant of a private residential property must stay a minimum of three consecutive months under URA rules; an entire HDB flat must be let for at least six months per tenancy, with HDB's approval obtained before the tenancy begins. Shorter lets are not permitted.

On occupancy, the cap was temporarily relaxed in January 2024 to allow 4-room and larger HDB flats and private residential properties of at least 90 sqm to house up to eight unrelated persons, up from six. HDB and URA announced on 16 January 2026 that this relaxation runs until 31 December 2028. If the agreement names fewer occupants than you intend to house, amend it before signing rather than after. More on the private-property floor in the three-month minimum rental period.

Who pays the stamp duty, and by when?

Lease duty is 0.4% of the total rent over the lease period for terms of four years or less. Longer or indefinite terms are charged 0.4% of four times the average annual rent. Nothing is payable if average annual rent does not exceed S$1,000. By convention the tenant pays, but the agreement decides.

The deadline is the part people miss: the document must be stamped within 14 days of signing in Singapore, or 30 days if it was signed overseas. Late stamping attracts a penalty from IRAS, and an unstamped agreement is a weak document to rely on in any later dispute. On a S$4,000-a-month two-year lease, total rent is S$96,000 and duty is S$384 — small enough that it is worth paying on time and arguing about nothing else.

Why does the inventory list belong in the agreement?

Because it sets the baseline the reinstatement clause is measured against. An agreement with a dated, photographed inventory attached as a schedule converts an end-of-lease argument into a comparison. Without one, the landlord's recollection becomes the standard.

Insist the inventory is signed by both parties, dated, and cross-referenced in the body of the agreement. Photograph every room, every appliance and every existing defect on handover day and email the set to the agent and landlord the same day, so the timestamp is independent. Our move-in inventory guide lists what to capture, and the handover inspection checklist covers the same exercise in reverse at move-out.

What happens if you and the landlord disagree at handover?

The Small Claims Tribunals hear disputes under a tenancy agreement for residential premises not exceeding two years. Claims up to S$20,000 are accepted, rising to S$30,000 where both parties sign a Memorandum of Consent, and the claim must be filed within two years of the event giving rise to it.

Two limits catch people out. A lease longer than two years falls outside the Tribunals, as do commercial and industrial premises — those go to the ordinary courts, at ordinary cost. And a landlord cannot simply keep the deposit against an unquantified claim: deductions have to be itemised and evidenced. Our guides on security deposit disputes and the betterment rule cover what a landlord may and may not charge for.

Which clauses should you negotiate before signing?

Four, in priority order: the reinstatement standard, the minor repair cap, the deposit return deadline, and the diplomatic clause trigger. Each is a market convention rather than a legal fixture, and each is routinely amended when a tenant asks before signature.

Add the wear-and-tear carve-out to the reinstatement clause if it is missing. This is the highest-value edit on the page.
Fix the minor repair cap per incident at S$150 to S$300 and add an annual aggregate ceiling.
Write a deposit return deadline — 14 days after handover, less itemised deductions — because no statute supplies one.
Set the diplomatic clause trigger at twelve months with two months' notice, and cap any commission reimbursement to the unexpired term.
Attach the inventory as a signed schedule, dated and photographed, and name every intended occupant.

None of these requests is unusual, and an agent handling a compliant landlord will have seen all five before. The leverage exists only until the agreement is signed.

Not sure what your reinstatement clause commits you to?

Send us the clause and your lease-end date. We will tell you what the wording actually requires, and quote a fixed price for the work against your handover inventory.

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Stamp duty rates and deadlines are per IRAS lease duty rules; minimum stay durations per URA and HDB; occupancy cap extension per the joint HDB and URA announcement of 16 January 2026; claim limits per the Singapore Judiciary. Deposit amounts, minor repair caps and diplomatic clause terms are market conventions, not legal requirements, and are negotiable in every agreement.

References & further reading

Authoritative Singapore sources for further reading. This guide is general information, not legal advice — confirm current rules with the relevant authority.