The Mayfair

What it actually costs to move out

Monthly rent is about two thirds of the real number. Here is the cash you need before you get keys, and what it works out to each once you split it.

Above 6 people the owner must apply to HDB before the tenancy starts. It is not automatic, and there is a fee. The cap of 8 for 4-room and larger flats is a temporary relaxation running to 31 December 2028.

Where the day-one money goes

First month rent

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Stamp duty, 0.4% of total rent

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Agent commission

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Excludes the deposit, which comes back at the end.

Agent commission: what is law and what is only custom

• No legal rate exists. Every fee is negotiable and must be in writing.
• One agent, one side. Collecting from landlord and tenant in the same deal is an offence. CEA has fined agents for it.
• Told before, not after. The fee must be disclosed before the agent works for you — not after you sign the LOI.
• Go direct, pay nothing. No agent of your own means the landlord pays theirs.
• Custom, not law: about one month total, usually landlord-paid. Under S$6,000/month, tenants are increasingly billed half to one month.

Local tenants often pay nothing because they view flats themselves and deal with the landlord's agent directly. Students arriving from overseas usually cannot, so they engage their own agent and get billed. The difference is not your nationality — it is who engaged the agent. You can change that.