House cleaning services in Singapore cost roughly S$20 to S$30 an hour in 2026, and almost every provider sets a 3 to 4 hour minimum, so a single session lands around S$70 to S$120 before GST. The cheapest sticker rates start near S$16 to S$18 an hour, but those numbers hide the real cost: 9 percent GST that turns a S$22 quote into S$24, platform and insurance fees of a few dollars per booking, weekend surcharges, and transport. The better question for your wallet is not which company is cheapest per hour. It is whether to pay ad-hoc or lock in a recurring slot, and whether the person scrubbing your floor is legally allowed to be there at all. Hiring someone off a chat group to save a few dollars an hour can expose you to a fine of up to S$30,000 under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act. This guide gives you the verified 2026 prices, the value math on recurring versus one-off, and the legal rule that decides whether your cheap cleaner is actually a bargain.
For most households the best value is a recurring weekly or fortnightly cleaner booked through a licensed company, with the all-in nett price confirmed in writing before the first session. Recurring rates run about 10 to 20 percent below one-off rates because the company keeps the same staff on a fixed route, so you typically pay around S$18 to S$25 an hour instead of S$24 to S$30 for ad-hoc. A 3 to 4 room HDB usually needs a 3 to 4 hour session, which puts a fortnightly clean at roughly S$60 to S$100 a visit before GST.
Ad-hoc cleaning makes sense for a one-time spring clean, a pre-move-out scrub, or post-renovation dust, where you want a flat-rate job rather than an open-ended hourly meter. For weekly upkeep, recurring wins on both price and reliability, because you get the same cleaner who already knows your home.
The two numbers that decide whether a quote is good are the nett price including 9 percent GST and the minimum hours. A S$22 per hour rate at a 4 hour minimum is an S$88 session before GST and about S$96 after, not the S$66 you might picture for 3 hours. Always ask for the total you will actually pay, then compare like for like.
Prices below are current as of June 2026 and reflect published rates from active platforms. The headline hourly figure is the number everyone shops on, but the session total is what leaves your account. Almost every provider enforces a minimum of 3 to 4 hours, so the lowest hourly rate does not always give the lowest session cost once you factor in the minimum.
Watch the GST line first. Singapore's GST has been 9 percent since 1 January 2024, and a GST-registered cleaning company has to charge it on top of the advertised rate. A handful of platforms quote prices inclusive of GST, but many show a pre-GST figure or a 'plus-plus' rate written as S$18++. That double plus is the tell that GST and sometimes a service component get added at checkout. Ask for the nett figure, the all-in number, before you book.
Then watch the small print. Helpling adds about S$3.90 per booking for platform and insurance costs, plus a roughly S$10 surcharge for Friday to Sunday slots before 6pm. Other providers fold in transport or peak-period loadings. None of these is large on its own, but on a weekly booking they add up across a year, so read the full fee schedule, not just the hero rate.
| Provider | One-off (S$/hr) | Recurring (S$/hr) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luce | from S$16++ | from S$18++ | 3-hour minimum; ++ means GST/charges added at checkout |
| Nimbus / HomeFresh tier | S$22 to S$25 | from S$16 to S$18 | Recurring discount among the steepest |
| Helpling | S$24 | S$21 (weekly/fortnightly) | ~S$3.90 platform fee/booking; ~S$10 Fri-Sun peak surcharge |
| HelperGo | S$25 | S$22 | Standard one-off vs recurring split |
| Helperoo | S$30 | S$24 | 3-hour minimum |
| Sureclean | S$140 / 4 hrs (~S$35) | S$25/hr (4x4 hrs) | Prices before 9% GST; clear package tiers |
| Whissh | n/a | from S$105 / 4 hrs (~S$26) | Weekly package, flat per-session |
| Urban Company | from S$46 / 2 hrs | n/a | 2-hour minimum; per-job rather than open hourly |
The recurring discount is real money. Take a mid-market provider charging S$25 an hour ad-hoc and S$22 an hour recurring on a 3 hour session. Ad-hoc is S$75 a visit, recurring is S$66, a S$9 saving per clean. Do that fortnightly across a year and you save about S$234 before GST, and you also keep the same cleaner who learns where things go. The trade is commitment: most recurring plans expect you to keep the slot, and cancelling late can still incur a charge.
Where the math flips is for jobs you do once. A deep clean, a post-renovation dust-down, or a move-out clean is better priced as a flat-rate job than by the hour, because an hourly meter punishes you if the team is slow and a flat rate caps your downside. Expect roughly S$200 to S$400 for a deep clean of an HDB or condo, S$300 to S$650 for move-in or move-out, and S$350 to S$900 or more for post-renovation, depending on how much dust there is. For these, get the scope in writing so 'deep clean' does not quietly exclude the oven, the windows, or the balcony.
Run any recurring package through a simple test before you sign. Multiply the per-session nett price by the number of sessions and treat that as your annual cleaning budget line, the same way you would size any monthly budget item. If the figure is more than a few percent of your take-home pay, drop the frequency from weekly to fortnightly rather than chasing a cheaper-but-flakier provider. A reliable fortnightly clean you actually keep beats a cheap weekly one you cancel.
A general clean is wiping, dusting, vacuuming and mopping the floors, plus a tidy of the bathrooms and kitchen surfaces. That is the job most hourly rates buy you. It is not a deep clean, and the gap between the two is where households get a nasty surprise. Inside-oven degreasing, window panes above arm's reach, balcony scrubbing, fridge interiors, grout, and moving heavy furniture to clean behind it are routinely treated as extras or flat-rate jobs, not part of the hourly clean. Sureclean, for example, lists oven cleaning as a plus-S$30 add-on rather than something folded into the base session.
Supplies are the second thing to pin down. Some companies bring their own cloths, mop, vacuum and chemicals; others expect your home to be stocked and the cleaner to use what you have. A lower hourly rate often quietly assumes you supply the kit, which is a real cost if you have none. Ask two plain questions before booking: does the price include cleaning materials and equipment, and is this a general clean or a deep clean. Get both answers in writing so the quote you compare is the job you actually receive.
Time also caps what gets done. A 3 to 4 hour session on a 4-room flat covers the routine surfaces well, but it will not also strip-clean the oven, shampoo the sofa and do every window in the same visit. If your list is long, either book a longer session or split the heavy items into a separate deep clean rather than expecting the cleaner to absorb them inside the standard hours.
Past the general clean sits a menu of specialised jobs, each priced per piece or per session rather than by the hour. These are the upholstery, mattress, carpet, curtain, window and disinfection services that most households need once or twice a year, not weekly. Pricing varies with size and condition, and a wet wash with stain removal costs more than a dry vacuum. The figures below are indicative market ranges drawn from published Singapore provider price lists in 2026, all before 9 percent GST, so treat them as a budgeting guide and get a firm quote for your exact items.
Two rules keep these add-ons from blowing your budget. First, bundle them. Booking a sofa and two mattresses in one visit usually beats three separate call-outs, because each visit carries a setup and travel cost. Second, separate the routine from the deep. Paying a part-time cleaner's hourly rate to scrub a mattress is poor value; a specialist with the right extraction machine does it faster and better for a fixed price. Keep your weekly clean lean and budget the specialised jobs as occasional one-offs, the same way you would size any irregular monthly budget line.
| Service | Indicative price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sofa / upholstery (fabric) | about S$80 to S$265 per seat or piece | Larger sofas and leather cost more; wet wash dearer than dry |
| Mattress cleaning | about S$80 to S$225 per mattress | Super-king and wet stain-removal at the top of the range |
| Carpet / rug cleaning | about S$120 to S$190 per carpet | Priced by size and pile; shampoo vs dry clean differs |
| Curtain cleaning (steam) | from about S$35 per piece | Per panel; heavy or lined curtains cost more |
| Interior window cleaning | from about S$280 per home | Scales with unit size; external high-rise often excluded |
| Disinfection / sanitisation | from about S$250 per home | 30-day vs longer-protection tiers; size-based |
| Inside-oven cleaning | about +S$30 add-on | Commonly charged on top of a general or deep clean |
This is the part the lifestyle listicles skip, and it is the most expensive mistake you can make. The cheapest 'cleaner' offers often come from chat groups or word of mouth, and a chunk of them are foreign domestic workers moonlighting on their off days, or other foreigners working without a valid pass for that job. Engaging them is not a grey area. It is illegal employment under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act.
If you employ a foreigner who does not hold a valid work pass for the work, you can be fined between S$5,000 and S$30,000, jailed for up to 12 months, or both, and MOM can bar you from hiring foreign workers in future. The worker faces a fine of up to S$20,000, up to two years' jail, and a ban from working in Singapore. A foreign domestic worker who moonlights breaches her work permit conditions outright. In one 2025 case a helper who earned about S$825 a month on the side as a part-time cleaner was fined S$13,000, and the magistrate called it lenient.
Put that next to the saving. Hiring off-the-books might shave S$5 to S$8 an hour off the licensed rate, maybe S$200 to S$400 a year. Against that you are risking a five-figure fine, possible jail, and getting a vulnerable worker deported. There is also no insurance: if an unlicensed cleaner breaks your TV or gets hurt in your home, you have no platform cover and no recourse. The legal route, a cleaner employed by a licensed company who holds a valid work pass, is the one where your downside is capped. Treat the work-pass question as a hard filter, the same way you would check that any provider is properly licensed before handing over money.
Reputation aside, three checks protect your money. First, confirm the company is a registered business and that its cleaners are its own employees on valid work passes, not subcontracted strangers. A legitimate provider will state this plainly; one that dodges the question is a red flag. Second, ask for the nett price in writing, including GST and any platform, transport or weekend fee, so the quote you compare is the figure you will pay. Third, check the cancellation and damage policy: a fair provider lets you cancel a recurring slot with reasonable notice and carries insurance for breakages.
One licence myth is worth clearing up. Singapore's NEA cleaning business licence does not cover home cleaning at all. NEA lists cleaning of domestic premises as excluded work, so a firm that cleans only households is not required to hold that licence, and a provider waving an NEA cleaning licence is not the proof of legitimacy it sounds like. What actually protects you is more basic: the business is properly registered, the cleaner holds a valid work pass for the job, and there is breakage insurance behind the booking. Check those three, not a cleaning-licence badge.
Reviews are useful but read them for patterns, not stars. Repeated complaints about no-shows, last-minute substitutions, or surprise add-on charges tell you more than a five-star average. For recurring service, the single best signal is whether you get the same cleaner each time, because consistency is what you are paying the recurring premium for.
Be wary of large prepaid packages. Some cleaning outfits push a discounted block of sessions paid upfront, and the discount is real, but so is the risk if the company folds, the same trap that has hit prepaid wellness and spa packages in Singapore. Pay per session or in small blocks, and keep your committed money low. The few dollars of interest you forgo by not prepaying is nothing against losing a four-figure balance to a closure.
The cheapest cleaning is the cleaning you do not outsource, and for a small flat that may be the right call. A part-time cleaner is a convenience purchase, not a necessity, so it belongs in the discretionary slice of your budget. If you run a 50/30/20 split, regular cleaning sits squarely in the 30 percent wants, which means it competes with dining out and travel, not with rent or savings.
A middle path saves the most for many households: clean the easy surfaces yourself weekly and book a paid deep clean once a quarter. A quarterly S$250 deep clean is about S$1,000 a year, versus roughly S$1,700 for fortnightly upkeep at S$66 a session. You keep the home liveable for free and pay only for the heavy reset. That frees up several hundred dollars a year that can go straight into an emergency fund or a low-cost index investment instead.
If you do outsource, automate the payment and the budgeting. Set the recurring fee as a fixed monthly line so it never surprises you, and revisit it once a year the way you would any subscription. Cleaning is one of the easier discretionary costs to right-size, because you can dial frequency up or down without losing the service entirely.
Roughly S$20 to S$30 an hour for most licensed providers, with one-off rates at the higher end and recurring weekly or fortnightly rates 10 to 20 percent lower. The cheapest published sticker rates start near S$16 to S$18, but those are usually 'plus-plus' figures that add 9 percent GST and other charges at checkout, and almost all providers set a 3 to 4 hour minimum per session.
A standard clean of a 3 to 4 room HDB usually takes 3 to 4 hours, so expect about S$60 to S$100 a session at recurring rates, before 9 percent GST. A one-off deep clean of the same flat runs higher, around S$200 to S$400, because it is priced as a flat-rate job rather than by the hour.
Yes, if the cleaner holds a valid work pass for that work, which is the case when you book through a licensed cleaning company that employs its own staff. It is illegal to engage a foreign domestic worker moonlighting on her off day, or any foreigner without a valid pass. Doing so can draw a fine of S$5,000 to S$30,000, up to 12 months' jail, and a future hiring ban under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act.
GST-registered cleaning companies must charge 9 percent GST on top of their advertised rate, which has been the rate since 1 January 2024. Some platforms quote prices inclusive of GST, but many show a pre-GST figure or a '++' rate, so a S$22 quote becomes about S$24 nett. Always ask for the all-in price, and note that a very small operator below the GST registration threshold may not charge it.
Yes. Recurring weekly or fortnightly bookings are typically 10 to 20 percent cheaper per hour than ad-hoc because the company keeps the same staff on a fixed route. The trade-off is commitment, since you are expected to keep the slot and late cancellations may still be charged. One-off cleaning is better only for one-time jobs like a deep clean or move-out.
A cleaning company or agency directly employs its cleaners and assigns them to your home. A platform such as Helpling matches you with vetted cleaners and adds a small booking and insurance fee, around S$3.90 per booking, plus possible peak surcharges. Either is fine as long as the cleaner holds a valid work pass and the service carries breakage insurance.
Generally no for large upfront packages. The discount is real, but if the company closes you become an unsecured creditor and may lose the balance, the same risk that has hit prepaid spa and wellness packages. Pay per session or in small blocks to keep your committed money low; the interest you forgo is trivial next to the downside of a five-figure loss.
It depends on the provider, so ask before you book. Some companies bring their own cloths, mop, vacuum and chemicals as part of the price; others expect your home to be stocked and the cleaner to use what you already have. A lower hourly rate often assumes you supply the kit, which is a real cost if your cupboards are empty. Confirm in writing whether cleaning materials and equipment are included so the quote you compare matches the job you receive.
A general clean covers dusting, vacuuming, mopping the floors, wiping surfaces, and tidying the bathrooms and kitchen. It does not normally include inside-oven degreasing, fridge interiors, high windows, balcony scrubbing, grout, or moving heavy furniture; those are usually charged as extras or as a separate deep clean. State up front whether you want a general clean or a deep clean, because the scope and price differ a lot.
These are priced per piece or per session, not by the hour. As an indicative 2026 guide from published Singapore provider rates, before 9 percent GST: sofa or upholstery roughly S$80 to S$265 per seat or piece, mattress cleaning about S$80 to S$225 each, carpet around S$120 to S$190, curtains from about S$35 per panel, interior window cleaning from about S$280, and home disinfection from about S$250. Wet washes with stain removal cost more, and bundling several items into one visit saves on setup and travel.
No. Tipping is not expected for cleaning services in Singapore, and most bookings are settled at the agreed nett price with no service charge added by the cleaner. Some households give a small token at festive periods or for an unusually heavy job, but it is entirely optional. If you want to reward good work, the more useful move is to keep the same cleaner on a recurring slot and leave an honest review.
No. NEA's cleaning business licence treats cleaning of domestic premises as excluded work, so a firm that cleans only households is not required to hold it. A provider presenting an NEA cleaning licence is not giving you the proof of legitimacy it appears to be. What matters for a home clean is that the business is properly registered, the cleaner holds a valid work pass for the job, and the booking carries breakage insurance.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.