Landed house interior design in Singapore: cost, timeline and approvals

The short answer

• Full interior renovation of a terrace house: plan for $200,000 to $350,000. Semi-detached and detached usually start around $350,000.
• Allow four to seven months on site, plus four to eight weeks of design before anyone lifts a hammer.
• Interior works do not need approval. Anything structural, anything that adds floor area and anything that changes the roof or envelope needs a qualified person and submissions.
• Budget for the invisible work first: roof and bathroom waterproofing, rewiring and drainage. These decide whether the house lasts, and they are cheap to fix only while the house is open.
• The middle of a terrace is always the darkest room. Solve daylight and cross ventilation at planning stage, not with finishes later.

A landed home, on video

How much does a landed renovation cost in Singapore?

Ranges below reflect what we see across Singapore for a full interior renovation. Structural additions and alterations sit outside these figures and are priced separately.

These are market ballparks for planning, not a quotation. Landed pricing swings widely with the condition of the property, the extent of structural work and the finishes you choose. We price only after a site visit.

Start with the building, not the mood board

Before we talk about stone slabs and joinery, we walk the house from the roof down. Water staining on upper ceilings, the condition of the flat roof, old electrical wiring, corroded pipework and how the drains fall all decide what the renovation actually needs. A beautiful interior sitting on unresolved waterproofing is money thrown away within two monsoon seasons.

Older landed homes in Singapore often carry undocumented alterations from previous owners. An enclosed balcony, a covered car porch, an attic conversion. Pulling the approved plans early tells you what is on record and what is not, which matters the moment any submission goes in, and it matters again when you eventually sell.

This is also where you find out whether your dream layout is possible. A wall that looks like a partition can be carrying the floor above it. Better to know in week one than after the hacking crew has started.

Light and air across three storeys

The middle of a terrace house is usually the darkest part of the home, because daylight only enters from the front and rear. Skylights over the stairwell, an air well, an open stair void and glazed internal partitions do more for how the house feels than any finish you can buy.

We plan cross ventilation at the same time. In our climate a house that breathes well is cooler, drier and cheaper to run. Positioning openings so air moves through the stairwell and out at high level pulls heat up and out of the living spaces without a single fan running.

Storey by storey, the rhythm usually works out like this: the ground floor stays open and social, the second floor holds bedrooms and quiet, and the attic becomes whatever the family actually needs, whether that is a study, a gym or a guest suite. Deciding that early stops you paying for rooms nobody uses.

What a realistic landed timeline looks like

Design and drawings take four to eight weeks. A full interior renovation of a terrace house then runs four to seven months on site. Add structural additions and alterations and the programme stretches, because approvals and inspections sit in the critical path and cannot be compressed by adding more workers.

The sequence matters more than the speed. Hacking and structural work first, then wet works and waterproofing with proper curing time, then electrical and plumbing first fix, then screeding and tiling, then carpentry, then painting and final fix. Rushing waterproofing to save a week is the single most expensive shortcut in landed renovation.

We schedule the trades so they do not trip over each other, and you get a weekly update with photos of where the house stands.

Interior renovation or A&A: knowing which one you are doing

If you are changing finishes, kitchens, bathrooms, carpentry and non-structural partitions, you are doing an interior renovation. No submission, no qualified person, and the programme stays predictable.

The moment you add floor area, change the roofline, alter the external envelope, or touch structural walls, beams or columns, you are in additions and alterations territory. That needs a qualified person to submit and supervise, and the approval process runs in parallel with your design. Homeowners who discover this late lose months.

We flag this at the first site visit so your budget and your calendar are built on the right assumption from the start.

One team from drawing to handover

Landed projects have far more moving parts than a flat. The common failure is a designer who draws beautifully, then hands the site to subcontractors nobody supervises properly across a seven month programme.

At Quad.R Design the design team and the build team sit in the same studio. Our own carpenters work from our own drawings, and one project manager owns the site from the first hack to the final defect check. When something is found behind a wall, you hear it from us with a photo and a cost the same week, not at the end with an invoice.

Before you sign a landed renovation contract

1. 01

   Pull the approved plans

   Know what is on record before you design around it. Undocumented alterations by a previous owner become your problem at submission stage.

2. 02

   Get the roof and waterproofing inspected

   Upper floor ceiling stains, a tired flat roof or old bathroom membranes should be priced in from day one, not discovered halfway through.

3. 03

   Check the electrical load and the DB box

   Older landed homes were not wired for induction hobs, dryers, storage heaters and five aircon units. Rewiring is invisible but it is what makes the house safe for the next twenty years.

4. 04

   Confirm whether your plans need a qualified person

   Structural changes, added floor area and roof alterations require submissions. Confirm this before you commit to a completion date or a rental end date.

5. 05

   Ask for an itemised quotation, not a lump sum

   Line by line pricing lets you compare quotations properly and shows you exactly what is excluded. Vague allowances are where budgets quietly grow.

6. 06

   Ask who is actually on site

   Find out whether the carpentry is made in-house or outsourced, and who supervises the site daily across a programme that long.