Renting in Singapore: LOI, Tenancy Agreement, and deposits

Short answer: You view, you submit a Letter of Intent (which is often treated as binding the moment the landlord accepts it), you sign a Tenancy Agreement, and then you pay IRAS lease stamp duty on it — 0.4% of total rent on a typical 1–2 year TA, with the tenant footing it if the TA says nothing. The diplomatic clause and the deposit return are where expats actually lose money. Confirm the live IRAS and CEA pages before you rely on any of this.

Singapore's private rental market moves fast. A good unit can collect several Letters of Intent over a single weekend, which is why understanding the paper trail protects you considerably more than winning a symbolic S$50 off the rent. One thing to separate in your head early: tenant-side fees and renewal commissions live in a different contract from the TA, and we cover those in CEA agent commission.

From viewing to LOI

After the viewings, interested tenants submit a Letter of Intent setting out the proposed rent, lease length, move-in date, the diplomatic and break clauses you want, and a good-faith booking deposit. That deposit is commonly half a month's rent, and it gets applied to the security deposit later rather than disappearing.

Here's the part people underestimate. Once accepted, an LOI is often treated as binding in practice, so read it properly before you fire off the WhatsApp saying "confirm". A one-word message on a Saturday afternoon can turn out to be the moment you committed.

If you're renting HDB, add two asks that private-condo hunters skip entirely. First, a copy of the HDB approval to rent out the flat or the bedroom, with your name to follow on registration. Second, clarity on whether this is a whole-flat or a bedroom rental, because owners who "just visit on Sundays" fail the continuous-occupation rules on bedroom rentals. The HDB bedroom playbook has the detail.

And run the fibre TP availability check on the unit before the holding deposit clears, not after you've moved in and discovered the problem: fibre / NetLink.

The Tenancy Agreement

The TA is the full contract, and it's the document you'll be arguing from if anything goes wrong later. Work through it properly:

• Is the inventory list actually complete? This matters most in furnished units, where the gap between the list and the flat becomes your problem at handover.
• The diplomatic clause wording and the notice period it demands. Deep dive in security deposits and diplomatic clause.
• Who is responsible for repairs, and how often the aircon gets serviced.
• Guest and pet rules, which have to match the condo by-laws and not just what the landlord is relaxed about.
• Early termination penalties. If you don't have a qualifying break clause, read breaking a lease early before you sign rather than after.
• Landlord entry and quiet enjoyment: how much notice you get for inspections and end-of-lease viewings. The entry playbook covers what's reasonable to insist on.
• Sale and landlord-break wording if you're in an HDB flat. Mid-lease sales are a recurring forum shock, and landlord selling explains where you'd stand.
• A condition that the HDB approval stays valid for the whole term, for both bedroom and whole-flat rentals.

Lease stamp duty, and the agent who says there isn't any

An agent who tells you there's "no stamp duty on this landed studio" or none on a room is giving you useful information, just not the information they meant to. It's a classic tell for a scam or an illegal sublet. IRAS lease duty applies to residential tenancy documents, and an unstamped TA is hard to enforce on the day the deposit fight starts, which is exactly the day you'll wish you had it.

Worked through: S$4,500/month × 24 months comes to S$108,000 of total rent, so roughly S$432 of lease duty at 0.4%.

Watch what feeds into AAR as well. It picks up a lot of "other considerations" such as furniture, service and advertising charges, while excluding GST. Read the IRAS renting page before you accept a quote that looks suspiciously light.

If you want the landlord to cover the duty, negotiate it into the TA, because silence defaults to you paying. Once you're stamped and the argument has moved on to the deposit, security deposits & diplomatic clause covers that ground, SCT limits included. Year-two price talks run on their own rail: lease renewal & rent increases.

Deposits, and the photos that protect them

Security deposits of one to two months are common on annual leases, varying with the furnishings and with how the landlord feels about it. What matters more than the number is what you do on move-in day. Photograph every scratch, with the date on it, before you unpack a single box. Humidity and mould fights are won with move-in evidence, not with WhatsApp arguments in month 23 when nobody can prove what the skirting board looked like.

One family note. Set the LOI timing against the school orientation calendar before you agree to it. Collecting keys on the same morning as bus trials and uniform fittings is a day you'll wish you'd arranged differently.