Singapore · Private office search guide
By Nextspace, expert broker · Last verified: September 2026 · 8 min read
Finding a private office in Singapore comes down to three options: an office in a coworking space, a private office inside a serviced office centre, or a traditional office lease of your own.
A dedicated coworking office typically lists at about SGD3,000 a month. A private office is priced by the room: half of the 980 private offices we quoted in the past year came in between SGD2,700 and SGD8,030 a month. A traditional office is leased bare, so you have to build it from scratch.
What separates them is not really the price. It is how much of the working environment is already there when you arrive, and how much of it you have to make yourself. Nextspace is a free office broker in Singapore, paid by operators rather than by clients, and below is how the three actually compare.
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Coworking, private office or traditional office
Private office: an average of SGD843 per desk a month across the 124 centres we list, and half of the 980 private offices we quoted in the past year came in between SGD2,700 and SGD8,030 a month.
Traditional office: quoted per square foot, before fit-out, furniture, IT and reinstatement.
Coworking office
- Your own lockable office, with everything else already there: reception, meeting rooms, pantry, printing, phone booths, high-speed internet and cleaning
- A Grade A building and a front desk that greets your visitors, without holding the floor
- Busy and social. Other companies around you, events, and the incidental contact that comes with sharing a floor
- Short terms, so the team can move to a bigger room as it grows
- In this week, with nothing to buy, build or manage
- Your door opens onto a busy floor, so noise and foot traffic come with it
- The environment is set by the operator and by whoever else is on the floor that day
- The lounge and pantry are shared, and fill up at the busiest hours
- Meeting rooms come on credits, and a team that meets daily will run through them
- You cannot brand the space beyond your own room
Private office
- A private, lockable room with your company name on the door
- Furnished, wired and staffed on day one. No fit-out, no furniture order, no IT install
- A quiet, self-contained environment inside a professional floor, with a staffed reception handling your visitors, calls and mail
- Meeting rooms, pantry, cleaning and utilities all run by someone else
- A 6 or 12 month commitment, and room to move to a larger suite in the same building if you agree it at signing
- You are a guest on someone else’s floor, sharing their reception, pantry and meeting rooms
- The room is the room. Knocking walls through or changing the layout is not on offer
- Branding is usually limited to a nameplate and whatever you put on your own walls
- Meeting-room time beyond the allowance and after-hours air conditioning are extra
- Less incidental contact with other companies than an open coworking floor
When a traditional office lease makes sense
A traditional office is bare space taken direct from a landlord, usually on a three-year term. It is the only one of the three where you build the environment yourself, and that cuts both ways.
- A whole floor or unit that is unmistakably yours, with your own front door and no shared reception
- You design the layout around how your company actually works: the meeting rooms you need, the quiet rooms you need, the kitchen where you want it
- Your own culture sets the noise level, the hours and the feel of the place
- Room to grow inside space you already hold, instead of renegotiating for it
- Nothing exists on day one. Fit-out, furniture, cabling, air conditioning zoning, all of it is yours to specify and pay for
- You run the building relationship: cleaning, security passes, repairs, contractors
- Reception, IT support and meeting-room booking become someone’s job, usually an office manager you now have to hire
- Three to six months from signature to the first day anyone can sit down
- At the end of the lease most landlords expect the unit returned to its original condition, and that reinstatement is paid by you
The turn comes somewhere around thirty people. Below that you are buying an environment you could rent complete, and paying for it twice: once in fit-out and once in the time it takes to run. Above it, the building starts working for you rather than the other way round, and having your own front door stops being a vanity and starts being how clients and staff read the company.
How to look for a private office in Singapore
Step 1: size the team you will be, not the team you are
Almost every failed office search starts here. A company signs for the headcount it has on the day it looks, outgrows the room in eight months, and pays to move twice.
Private offices in Singapore are sold by the desk: a four-person office, a ten-person suite. Take the number you expect in twelve months, not today’s, and ask every operator for the floor area as well as the desk count. Two rooms sold as ten desks are not always the same size, and the price per desk hides the difference.
Step 2: choose the district before the building
Settle the district first, or every set of options you see will be a different argument. Two questions decide it: where do your clients expect to meet you, and where do your staff commute from. Raffles Place and Marina Bay buy you the address and the lift lobby that goes with it. Tanjong Pagar, Telok Ayer, Bugis and City Hall sit a few minutes away with a different character and a different price. Paya Lebar, one-north and the city fringe trade the postcode for newer buildings and more space for the money.
Here is the average listed price per desk for a private office in each district, across the centres we list. Only districts with at least five centres are shown.
Pick two districts, not six. A search that spans the CBD, Orchard and the east is really three separate searches, and it takes three times as long to reach a decision.
Step 3: view properly, and view fewer
Three or four viewings, chosen well, beat ten chosen badly. A floor plan and a photograph tell you almost nothing about what it is like to work somewhere. What to check on site:
- Natural light and the window line. An internal room at the same rate is not the same room, and your team will feel the difference every day.
- Noise, at a working hour. Sit in the space for five minutes at 11am, not at 8am when it is empty. Listen for the pantry, the corridor and the lift lobby.
- The shared areas at their busiest. Reception at 10am, the meeting rooms at 11, the pantry at 1pm. If they are full when you visit, they will be full when you need them.
- How many meeting rooms there are, and how they are booked. Ask how often the good one is taken, and what happens when it is.
- Air conditioning hours. When it switches off, what it costs after that, and whether the room is bearable at 7pm on a humid evening.
- The route in. The walk from the MRT and the lift wait at 9am are real costs paid daily by everyone you employ. Time them yourself, and check whether the route is covered when it rains.
- The people already there. On a shared floor you are buying their company as much as the operator’s. Look at who is at the desks.
Step 4: settle the terms, not just the room
Four things are far easier to agree at signing, while the operator is still competing for you, than at any point after you move in:
- Expansion. First refusal on the room next door, and a stated arrangement for a larger suite in the same building if you grow.
- The renewal, as a capped percentage or a stated second-term rate rather than a conversation to be had later.
- Meeting-room credits, if your team meets more than the allowance assumes.
- After-hours air conditioning, in writing, with the hours and the rate.
Companies that use Nextspace save an average of 32% against standard pricing, and most of that comes from the terms rather than the headline number.
Step 5: the whole search, in six lines
- Fix the headcount you expect in twelve months, and compare floor area as well as desk count.
- Decide the district before the building, and keep it to two.
- Ask every operator the same questions about amenities, meeting rooms and hours.
- Ask what is excluded before comparing anything.
- See the final three in person, at a working hour.
- Settle expansion and renewal at signing.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find a private office in Singapore?
Start from the headcount you expect in twelve months, pick one or two districts, then compare all-in monthly quotes on the same term and the same floor area. A broker does the sourcing and the negotiation at no cost to you, because operators pay the fee.
How much does a private office cost in Singapore?
A private office averages SGD843 per desk a month across the 124 centres we list in Singapore. By the room, half of the 980 private offices we quoted in the past year came in between SGD2,700 and SGD8,030 a month. What you pay turns on the team size, the building, the floor and the district.
Which district is cheapest for a private office in Singapore?
Of the districts where we list at least five centres, Holland Village and one-north (SGD786 per desk) and Orchard (SGD802) average lowest, and Clarke Quay (SGD1,197) the highest. Raffles Place, with 36 centres, averages SGD846 per desk.
What is the difference between a coworking office and a private office?
A coworking office is your own room inside a busy coworking centre, with reception, meeting rooms, pantry and internet all provided, typically about SGD3,000 a month. A private office in a serviced office centre gives you the same services on a quieter, more professional floor, averaging SGD843 per desk a month. The difference you are paying for is the environment around your door.
Should a small company in Singapore sign its own office lease?
Generally not below about thirty people. You would be building an environment you could rent complete: a full fit-out, furniture, IT, cleaning and reception, plus someone to run all of it, and paying to reinstate the unit when you leave.
How long does it take to move into a private office in Singapore?
An office in a coworking space the same week, and a private office in a serviced centre within days to a few weeks. A traditional office takes three to six months once fit-out is included.
Does a Singapore office broker cost anything?
Not to the client. Operators and landlords pay a commission on a successful placement, so the search, the viewings and the negotiation are free to the company taking the space.
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