Update, 13 October 2026: we had put a 4-room home insurance plan at $150 to $250 a year, but insurers' own published prices start lower, at $75.76 a year for AIG Homes Essential. Fire and home insurance are two separate policies that get confused because both involve a fire. HDB fire insurance is the cheap, compulsory one: it rebuilds the structural shell HDB originally built, and a five-year policy costs between $1.11 and $6.68 depending on flat type (Etiqa scheme, August 2024 to August 2029). It pays nothing toward your renovation, furniture, electronics or clothes. Home insurance, also called home contents insurance, is the optional policy that covers everything you put inside the flat plus extras like alternative accommodation and your liability to neighbours. A 4-room flat plan with around $80,000 of contents cover runs about $76 to $180 a year as of October 2026. Many owners hold both, and the costly mistake is assuming the $4.59 fire policy already protects the $50,000 renovation it sits inside.
HDB fire insurance insures the flat HDB built. Home insurance insures the home you made it. The first restores concrete, wiring and the sanitary fittings that came with the keys. The second restores your kitchen cabinetry, your sofa, your laptop and the wardrobe full of clothes that the fire policy treats as none of its business.
The reason this trips people up is that the renovation industry has blurred the line. The moment you tile over HDB's screed, swap the doors and build in carpentry, the value of the flat splits in two. HDB still owns the structural definition it will rebuild; you own everything bolted on top. Each half needs its own policy, and the cheap compulsory one only touches the first half.
Under the HDB Fire Insurance Scheme you must hold this cover for as long as you have an outstanding HDB loan. The scheme is currently underwritten by Etiqa Insurance for the period 16 August 2024 to 15 August 2029; the previous appointed insurer, from 2019, was FWD. Premiums are paid in cash, not from CPF, and the policy runs for five years before you renew.
What it pays for is narrow and fixed: reinstating the damaged structure, internal fixtures and areas built and provided by HDB. That means walls, ceilings, floors, internal doors and window frames, electrical wiring and sanitary fittings as originally constructed. The sum insured scales with flat size, from $37,900 for a 1-room up to $176,700 for an Executive or Multi-Generation flat. Compare that ceiling against a real rebuild before you assume it is enough, and run your own numbers through a renovation cost calculator to see how fast your own works outgrow it.
| Flat type | 5-year premium | Sum insured |
|---|---|---|
| 1-room / Community Care | $1.11 | $37,900 |
| 2-room / 2-room Flexi / Studio | $1.99 | $57,000 |
| 3-room | $3.27 | $83,300 |
| 4-room / S1 | $4.59 | $117,000 |
| 5-room / S2 / 3-Generation | $5.43 | $144,800 |
| Executive / Multi-Generation | $6.68 | $176,700 |
The exclusions are the whole point. The scheme states plainly that it does not cover home contents such as furniture, renovations and personal belongings. A kitchen fire that scorches your $40,000 carpentry, ruins the built-in oven and fills the flat with smoke damage is, to the fire policy, a structural matter only. The cabinetry, the appliances and the soot-damaged clothes are yours to replace.
Once your HDB loan is cleared, or if you bought with a bank loan, the scheme is no longer compulsory and you can choose not to renew. Most owners still keep it because it costs a few dollars for five years, but a bank-loan buyer should check the mortgage terms: lenders usually require their own fire cover on the structure as a condition of the loan.
Update, 13 October 2026: we have cut our 4-room price range from $150 to $250 a year to about $76 to $180, in line with AIG's and MSIG's published prices. Home insurance, sold as home contents or home protection plans, is optional and is where the real protection sits. It covers the things the fire scheme refuses to: your renovation and built-in fittings, loose furniture and appliances, electronics, clothing and valuables, plus a set of extras the structural policy never includes.
Those extras are often what justifies the premium. Alternative accommodation pays for a hotel or rental while your flat is being repaired. Personal liability covers you if a burst pipe or a fire from your unit damages a neighbour's home, a real exposure in stacked HDB living. Many plans add personal accident cover and worldwide cover for portable valuables. As of October 2026, AIG charges a fixed $75.76 a year for Homes Essential on any HDB flat, with up to $150,000 of contents and renovation cover, and MSIG's Enhanced HomePlus Superior plan, with $80,000 of contents, costs $179.85. On plans priced by sum insured, you keep the premium down by insuring renovation and contents to realistic replacement values rather than over-padding the sum insured.
Plans come in two shapes. An insured-perils policy lists the specific events it pays for, usually fire, lightning, explosion, burst pipes, theft and a handful of named disasters. An all-risks policy flips the logic: it covers accidental loss or damage unless the cause is specifically excluded, so it catches the clumsy everyday accidents a named-perils plan misses. All-risks costs more, and the gap matters most for portable electronics and jewellery.
The headline sum insured is rarely the number that decides a claim. Jewellery, watches and cash carry their own sub-limits, often a few thousand dollars regardless of how much the item is worth, and each article has its own cap: MSIG, for example, pays at most 5% of the contents sum insured (or $6,000 if lower) for any one valuable, and 30% for all valuables together. Read the deductible and the per-category caps before you trust the front-page figure, because that is where a real claim shrinks.
The cleanest way to see the gap is to lay both policies against the same flat and ask which one pays for each thing that can burn, flood or get stolen.
| What is damaged | HDB fire insurance | Home insurance |
|---|---|---|
| Walls, floors, wiring, original HDB fittings | Covered | Covered (some plans) |
| Renovation and built-in carpentry | Not covered | Covered |
| Furniture and appliances | Not covered | Covered |
| Electronics, clothing, valuables | Not covered | Covered (with sub-limits) |
| Theft and burglary | Not covered | Covered |
| Damage to a neighbour's unit (your liability) | Not covered | Covered |
| Hotel or rent while repairs happen | Not covered | Covered |
| Cause limited to fire only | Yes | No, depends on plan |
| Typical cost | $1.11-$6.68 per 5 years | ~$76-$180 per year (4-room) |
The right mix depends on whether you own, rent or let out the flat, and on how much renovation value you have stacked inside it.
A third policy gets tangled into this conversation: the Home Protection Scheme. HPS is a mortgage-reducing insurance run by the CPF Board that pays off your outstanding housing loan if you die, become terminally ill or are totally and permanently disabled, up to the sum insured, in line with each owner's share of cover, and until age 65 or until the loan is repaid. It protects the lender and your family from the debt, not the flat from fire and not your contents from theft.
HPS premiums are deducted from your CPF Ordinary Account, unlike fire insurance, which is paid in cash. HPS is required if you pay your HDB flat's monthly instalments with CPF; any term life policy you add on top is a separate decision from insuring the flat itself, and it pairs with how you have structured your mortgage insurance overall.
Yes, you must hold HDB fire insurance for as long as you have an outstanding HDB loan. It is currently underwritten by Etiqa for the 16 August 2024 to 15 August 2029 period and renewed every five years. Once the loan is cleared it becomes optional.
No. The scheme only reinstates the structure, fixtures and areas originally built and provided by HDB. Renovation, built-in carpentry, furniture, appliances and personal belongings are explicitly excluded and need a separate home contents insurance policy.
Update, 13 October 2026: we have cut our 4-room home insurance range from $150 to $250 a year to about $76 to $180, in line with insurers' published prices. HDB fire insurance costs between $1.11 and $6.68 for a five-year policy depending on flat type. Home contents insurance for a 4-room flat with around $80,000 of contents cover runs about $76 to $180 a year as of October 2026, varying with the sum insured, plan type and add-ons.
They cover different things. Fire insurance only rebuilds HDB's structural shell, so a fire that destroys your renovation, electronics and clothes leaves you uncovered. Home insurance fills that gap and adds liability, theft and alternative accommodation cover.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change, so verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).