The rental price of an HDB flat in 2026 lands roughly between $2,600 and $4,800 a month for a whole unit, and the town and flat type set almost all of that spread. A 3-room in Woodlands rents for about $2,600; a 4-room in the Central area is about $4,800. After two boiling years, rents have levelled off: HDB approved 9,381 applications to rent out flats in Q3 2026, 7.3% fewer than a year earlier, and most town medians sit within $200 of where they were. So you have more room to bargain than a renter did in 2023. This guide gives you the latest median rent for every town and flat type, names the cheapest and most expensive estates, and adds the deposit, stamp duty and tenancy rules that decide how much cash actually leaves your account.
Update, 28 October 2026: the medians in this guide now come from HDB's 3rd quarter 2026 data, released on 23 October. Most towns moved by $100 or less from the 2nd quarter. The typical 4-room is now about $3,500, Woodlands has taken over from Choa Chu Kang as the cheapest town for a 3-room, and HDB published no Central 5-room median this time because fewer than 20 were let. Two numbers frame the whole picture. The first is the typical median across towns: a 4-room flat, the most-rented type and about 37% of approved rent-out applications in Q3 2026, sits near $3,500 a month, while a 3-room runs closer to $2,900 and a 5-room around $3,750. The second is the trend: HDB approved 9,381 applications to rent out flats in Q3 2026, 7.3% fewer than a year earlier, and town medians mostly moved by $200 or less over the year, so rents have edged up rather than jumped.
Two caveats matter before you trust any single figure. HDB's published town medians are owner-declared and unverified, so treat them as a guide, not a quote. And a median hides a wide spread: within the same town, a high-floor renovated 4-room near an MRT can ask $500 to $800 more than a ground-floor unit on the same street. Use the town figure to set your budget band, then let actual listings narrow it.
If you are weighing renting against buying, the rent vs buy calculator puts a monthly rent next to the all-in cost of owning, and the broader cost of renting in Singapore guide covers condos and rooms alongside whole HDB flats.
| Flat type | Typical median rent | Cheapest band | Priciest band |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3-room | ~$2,900/mth | $2,600 (Woodlands) | $3,300 (Central) |
| 4-room | ~$3,500/mth | $3,000 (Bukit Panjang) | $4,800 (Central) |
| 5-room | ~$3,750/mth | $3,300 (Bukit Panjang, Choa Chu Kang, Punggol, Sembawang, Sengkang) | $4,500 (Bukit Merah, Queenstown) |
| Executive | ~$4,000/mth | $3,500 (Choa Chu Kang, Sembawang, Sengkang) | $4,200 (Jurong West) |
The table below is the part renters actually screenshot. Figures are HDB's latest published town-level medians, for the 3rd quarter of 2026 (released 23 October 2026), drawn from rental approvals for whole-flat rentals only. A dash means HDB recorded fewer than 20 rentals for that town and flat type, too few to publish a median, which itself tells you that supply is thin there.
Read it as a starting band. The town sets the floor and ceiling; floor level, renovation, furnishing and walking distance to an MRT move you within it.
| Town | 3-room | 4-room | 5-room |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ang Mo Kio | $2,800 | $3,400 | $3,800 |
| Bedok | $2,800 | $3,400 | $3,700 |
| Bishan | $3,000 | $3,700 | $4,100 |
| Bukit Batok | $2,730 | $3,400 | $3,700 |
| Bukit Merah | $3,000 | $4,000 | $4,500 |
| Bukit Panjang | $2,700 | $3,000 | $3,300 |
| Central | $3,300 | $4,800 | - |
| Choa Chu Kang | $2,700 | $3,100 | $3,300 |
| Clementi | $3,100 | $4,100 | $4,200 |
| Geylang | $2,900 | $3,800 | - |
| Hougang | $2,700 | $3,230 | $3,430 |
| Jurong East | $2,850 | $3,500 | $3,900 |
| Jurong West | $2,700 | $3,600 | $3,900 |
| Kallang/Whampoa | $3,000 | $3,800 | $4,000 |
| Marine Parade | $3,000 | $3,500 | - |
| Pasir Ris | - | $3,400 | $3,600 |
| Punggol | $2,900 | $3,250 | $3,300 |
| Queenstown | $3,100 | $4,300 | $4,500 |
| Sembawang | - | $3,200 | $3,300 |
| Sengkang | $2,880 | $3,200 | $3,300 |
| Serangoon | $2,800 | $3,500 | $3,800 |
| Tampines | $2,900 | $3,500 | $3,800 |
| Toa Payoh | $3,000 | $3,850 | $4,000 |
| Woodlands | $2,600 | $3,100 | $3,400 |
| Yishun | $2,700 | $3,100 | $3,380 |
If price is the only thing you care about, the north and the far west win, and it is not close. The cheapest whole-flat rents cluster in non-mature towns where supply is newer and the commute to the city is longer.
Renting a 3-room in Woodlands instead of a 3-room in the Central area saves around $700 a month, or roughly $8,400 over a one-year tenancy. That gap is real money you can redirect; the budget planner shows what a lower rent frees up across the rest of your spending.
At the top, the Central area is in a category of its own. A 4-room there has a published median around $4,800, which is well into condo-rent territory in cheaper towns, and too few 5-rooms were let in the 3rd quarter for HDB to publish one. Queenstown, Bukit Merah and Clementi follow, all city-fringe or near the centre with strong MRT access.
You are paying for location, not space. A 4-room in the Central area costs about $1,800 a month more than the same flat type in Bukit Panjang. Before you commit at the top end, the HDB vs condo comparison is worth a look, because at $4,000-plus a month an older condo with a pool and gym sometimes rents for similar money.
The headline rent is only part of your outlay. Three other costs decide how much you need on day one and over the lease.
Stamp duty on the tenancy is the one renters forget. For leases of up to four years it is 0.4% of the total rent over the whole lease term, and the tenant usually pays it to IRAS within 14 days of signing. On a 4-room at $3,400 a month on a one-year lease, that is about $163. You can estimate yours with the stamp duty calculator; for the underlying concept see the stamp duty glossary entry.
Renting an HDB flat is not a free market. HDB sets who can let a flat, how many people can live in it, and a quota on foreign tenants, and breaking these rules can cost the landlord the flat. As a tenant you want a landlord who has done this properly, because an unapproved sublet can be terminated.
The owner must be a Singapore Citizen to rent out a whole flat (PR owners cannot), must have met the Minimum Occupation Period, and must register the tenancy with HDB. The Minimum Occupation Period is usually five years from key collection for new flats.
With approvals 7.3% below a year earlier and most town medians within $200 of last year, rents have stopped racing ahead, so a tenant can push harder on price than during the post-pandemic surge.
Look one town out from where you think you want to live; next-door towns can be anything from level to about $600 a month apart for the same flat type, as a 4-room is in Clementi ($4,100) and Jurong East ($3,500). Sign a two-year lease if you are settled, since landlords will often hold or trim the rent for the certainty. And rent direct where you can to skip the agent fee. If you can stretch to a small whole-flat budget, compare it against renting a single room first using the wider cheapest rental rates breakdown.
On HDB's latest town-level medians, for the 3rd quarter of 2026, the middle town rents a whole 3-room flat for around $2,900 a month, a 4-room for around $3,500 and a 5-room for around $3,750. Actual rent varies widely by town, floor level and condition, so treat these as a band rather than a fixed price.
In the 3rd quarter of 2026 it was Woodlands for a 3-room, at around $2,600, and Bukit Panjang for a 4-room, at around $3,000. Five-room flats started at about $3,300 in Bukit Panjang, Choa Chu Kang, Punggol, Sembawang and Sengkang, and Yishun is also among the most affordable. They are non-mature towns further from the city, which is the main reason rents sit lower.
Central planning areas have very limited HDB stock and strong demand from professionals who want a short commute, so rents are bid up. A 4-room in the Central area has a median near $4,800, about $1,800 above the same flat type in Bukit Panjang.
Broadly flat, with a slight rise. HDB's town medians for the 3rd quarter of 2026 mostly sit within $200 of a year earlier, more of them up than down, and its 9,381 approved rent-out applications were 7.3% fewer than in the same quarter of 2025, after two years of sharp increases through 2023. That gives tenants a little more negotiating room than before.
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.
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