What lease-end reinstatement costs when the bands are real

Last updated 31 October 2026.

At the end of a Singapore shop or office lease the landlord’s agent walks around with a clause that usually says the tenant must reinstate. The argument is about what that word covers. This catalogue answers with scopes, not with a rate per square foot. People still ask for the average cost per square foot, the estimated cost of an office reinstatement contractor, and what happens when a lease is surrendered. The first two get the bands below. The third is a legal question we do not answer.

Micro-reinstatement is S$1,800 to S$4,500. The reinstatement page describes it as making good nail and screw holes, removing a short run of trunking or a feature panel, patching paint, and leaving the ceiling grid usable. It is the end-of-lease scope that is smaller than a strip-out. If your landlord wants the ceiling removed, the partitions gone, and the floor back to bare screed, you are no longer in that sentence.

A small shop or office of about 300 sq ft that needs a real strip-out is S$3,000 to S$7,500. An office of about 800 sq ft is S$8,000 to S$20,000. Debris clearing is from S$300. A false ceiling removed is S$300 to S$700 a room. One partition removed and made good is S$550 to S$1,300. Those are the lines. Dividing S$7,500 by 300 and calling the result “the market rate” is your arithmetic, not a published rate. The next unit will not match it.

Curtains, blinds and roller shades are not part of this booking.

Start with the clause and the landlord’s marked plan. Highlight only what must be removed or made good. A scuff the next tenant will paint anyway is not always in the clause. A sign, a kitchen, a raised floor and a gypsum room usually are. Photograph each highlighted item. The quote should be able to point at the photo and the clause line together.

Holes from removed signs and shelves, when they are small and the board is sound, can be the hole patch at S$150 to S$280 each time that sentence matches. A wall of holes after a directory comes down may be the micro scope instead of thirty call-outs. Say which. Paint is patch paint inside the micro sentence, not a designer recolour for the next brand. A full repaint has no band on the reinstatement page.

Ceiling grid: “usable” means tiles sit, hangers are intact, and the next person can lift a tile. It does not mean a new designer ceiling. Screwing tiles shut so they look tidy fails the handover the first time someone needs the void. A plasterboard section that is rotten from a leak is S$250 to S$650 after the leak has stopped, and it may sit inside or beside the micro price. Do not assume it is included. Ask.

A partition that was added during the lease comes out under the single-partition row, S$550 to S$1,300, when that is truly one partition made good. A floor of rooms is the 300 or 800 sq ft sentence, or quote on inspection if the photos do not match those sizes. Glass demountable adjustment while you are still in occupation is a different job, S$550 to S$1,200, and it is not demolition.

Industrial units are easy to misquote from the office bands. JTC, Ascendas or Mapletree B1 and B2 minor reinstatement is S$1,200 to S$4,800: anchors ground off, floor patch, DB labels, washroom and office touch-up. That is not an 800 sq ft CBD strip-out, and the CBD figure is not a factory. Use the page that names the building.

Send the clause, the area, and whether the landlord wants bare shell or “as found at the start”. Those are different volumes of work. A 300 sq ft shop with a kitchen to strip is not the same as a 300 sq ft office with two picture hooks. If you only have the hooks, do not buy the strip-out. If you have the kitchen, do not buy the micro sentence and hope.

Keys, deposits and early termination are not scoped here. “What happens when a lease is surrendered?” and “can a landlord terminate early?” need the lease and, if you need advice, someone who is allowed to give it. We are not that person. A 99-year lease running out is a tenure question, not a week of making good.

Match the landlord’s list to a scope. If it matches none, the answer is quote on inspection.

Questions a business should ask

Ask the contractor and ask the landlord. The two answers should describe the same rooms.

1. Does the clause want bare shell or the original condition?
2. Which published scope is the quote: micro, 300 sq ft, 800 sq ft, or quote on inspection?
3. Is the ceiling grid to remain usable, or to be removed?
4. How many partitions come out, and is each one the S$550 to S$1,300 row?
5. Are sign holes inside the price?
6. Is the building a factory with a JTC-style list instead?
7. Will hacking or a structural opening need a qualified person?
8. Are you also being asked to build the next tenant’s fit-out? That is a second quote.
9. Who holds the deposit, and are you expecting us to argue it? We will not.

The same square footage can be three different jobs.

BCA’s guide on building works that do not need approval is the checkpoint when reinstatement becomes demolition of structure rather than fittings. Insignificant works are in the First Schedule. A qualified person advises. Removing a tenant’s gypsum lining is often fittings. Cutting a new opening, or making good a structural chase, may not be. We stop at that line. V On Construction carries an HDB renovation permit when the premises are a flat and the work needs one. A shop is not assumed to be that flat.

SCDF still cares that an exit door and a fire shutter work on the day you hand the keys back. Do not remove a closer and leave the door off its latch as “reinstated”. NEA and SFA premises rules matter if a food shop’s tiles or cove are part of what the landlord wants put back. The F&B page prices repairs. It does not surrender the licence.

Surrender, early termination, and the end of a 99-year lease are not priced. URA and the contract govern those. Our photos and invoice are the record of the physical work only.

Official pages

• BCA: building works that do not need plan approval
• SCDF Fire Code 2023 clause 3.9: fire doors and self-closers

Homey Furnishing Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 202018148K), 27 Mandai Estate, #06-10 Innovation Place, Singapore 729931, invoices the permit-exempt visit. V On Construction Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 201611708H), on the HDB Directory of Renovation Contractors, invoices hacking, a new layout, and an HDB renovation permit. Homey Furnishing is not a property agency, not a CEA practice, and not a MOM-licensed employment agency.

How you're charged

A job that already has a sentence on HomeySG uses that sentence. The hour is not added on top of a band unless the written scope says so. There is no fuel surcharge and no published night premium except the mall overnight row.

You are charged the scope that matches the clause. Micro is not a deposit against the 800 sq ft band. If the walk reveals a kitchen the clause requires out, the quote changes before demolition, not after.

Ways to keep the bill smaller

• Highlight the clause. Paying to remove a feature the landlord is silent about is optional. Paying to leave one the clause names is not.
• Fill small holes under the hole row when that is all there is. Do not buy a strip-out for picture hooks.
• Leave the grid liftable. Screwing it shut creates a defect.
• Separate the next tenant’s fit-out. Combining it with yield-up hides both prices.

WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630.

Every figure below is already on the reinstatement, ceiling, mall or industrial page.

Anything not in that table is quote on inspection.

WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630. The reply uses a band already printed on HomeySG, or it says quote on inspection.

• Reinstatement bands
• Touch-up while you are still trading
• Factory minor reinstatement
• Leaving a ceiling usable
• Who instructs the work