9 Best Retail Interior Design Firms in Singapore (November 2026)

A shop fit-out has to clear three sets of rules before anyone talks about the design: the landlord's, the fire code and, in a shophouse, URA's planning rules. The firm you hire should know all of them. These are the checks I would run before signing anything.

• Named stores in Singapore. Ask which malls it has built in, then go and look. A firm that has already fitted out a unit at ION or Jewel knows how that building management runs its submissions, its hoarding and its after-hours works.
• BCA registration. The company building your shop should be registered with the Building and Construction Authority under the CR06 interior works workhead, and hold a builder licence if there is structural work. BCA publishes both lists as open data, the registered contractors and the licensed builders, with grades and expiry dates.
• Who handles fire safety. Most shop fit-outs touch the ceiling, the sprinklers or the exit signs. Small changes inside an existing shop can go through SCDF's minor works scheme, lodged by a Qualified Person, instead of a full plan approval. Ask the firm who its QP is.
• Its own workshop. Counters, display cases and shelving are what customers actually touch. A firm that makes them in-house controls the finish and the lead time, and doesn't have to wait on a subcontractor when a panel arrives scratched.
• A quote you can compare. Get it per square foot and itemised, with fixtures, lighting, signage and the landlord's fees on separate lines.

Two more checks if you are not in a mall. A shophouse may need planning permission from URA for its use before you renovate, and the sign out front needs its own BCA signage licence once it is bigger than 5 square metres.

A retail fit-out in Singapore usually costs about S$120 to S$300 per square foot for a shop in a mall, and S$300 or more for a flagship, going by the rates the firms on this list publish. On those numbers a 600 sq ft mall unit at S$180 per sq ft comes to roughly S$108,000, before the sign, the landlord's deposit and insurance.

These are contractors' own published figures (ID Work Studio for the rates, Om Decor for the totals). I couldn't find an independent quantity surveyor's number for retail, so treat them as a starting point and get three itemised quotes. Bespoke fixtures, stone and specialist lighting push a luxury boutique well past the top of the range.

Here is the list in one view, by the kind of shop each firm suits best.

Shopfitters work for brands and landlords, so most of them have a handful of Google reviews or none, and a star average tells you little. I weighted what I could check instead: named stores in Singapore on each firm's own site, its BCA registration and grade in BCA's open data (as published in January 2026), in-house production, and published prices. I left out home renovators with a single shop photo and firms whose retail work I couldn't trace to a real store. Registrations expire during the year, so check the current one before you sign. I update the list when my view changes.

A shop fit-out in Singapore needs the landlord's approval first, then SCDF approval for anything that changes fire safety, and a BCA licence for any sign over 5 square metres. A shophouse may also need URA planning permission for its use. Minor internal works that aren't structural usually need no BCA plan submission at all.

In a mall, the landlord's rules set most of the pace. One CapitaLand mall's fit-out guidelines, for example, ask for a deposit of S$1 per square foot of the unit (at least S$5,000), drawings two weeks before work starts, hoarding to the mall's own design, S$2 million of public liability insurance, and hacking and drilling only in set hours, mostly overnight. On fire safety, false ceilings, partitions, exit signs and up to nine sprinkler heads can usually go through SCDF's minor works lodgement for S$90, while bigger changes need full plan approval. BCA lists what needs no submission on its page of building works not requiring approval.

A retail fit-out in Singapore takes about 6 to 16 weeks on site, going by the timelines the firms here publish: ID Work Studio quotes 6 to 12 weeks and Om Decor 8 to 16, depending on the size of the shop. Add at least two weeks before that for the landlord to review your drawings, and longer if SCDF or URA approvals are involved.

Mall leases often include a fit-out period, and its length is set in the lease, so agree it before you sign and plan the build to fit inside it. Night works are common in malls because noisy work is restricted while the shops are trading, so ask whether a quote assumes day or night shifts. It changes the price.

A retail interior designer plans the store: the layout, the route a customer walks, the lighting and the look. A shopfitter builds it and makes the fixtures, meaning the counters, display cases and shelving. Design-and-build firms do both under one contract, which is what most independent shops want.

International brands usually arrive with their own design from head office and hire a shopfitter to build it to their manual, which is the work Legend Interiors and Redwood Interior are set up for. If you are a local brand with no designer, a design-and-build firm such as Positive Design, Om Decor or ID Work Studio gives you one team to hold accountable.

Usually, yes. Most retail leases in Singapore require you to return the unit to its original bare state when you leave, and reinstating a mall unit can cost S$35 to S$45 per square foot or more. Read the reinstatement clause before you sign, because it decides what you will pay to take your fit-out back out.

Start planning two to three months before the lease ends. Landlords often nominate the contractor, inspect the unit with you at handover and take any shortfall out of your deposit. Om Decor and ID Work Studio both list reinstatement as a service, and it's worth asking whoever builds your shop to quote for taking it out at the same time.

Often, yes. Inside shopping centres, switching between a shop, a showroom and a restaurant generally needs no planning permission under URA's authorised conditions, but party-walled shophouses and shopflats are left out of that rule. For those, check with URA and apply through GoBusiness if you need to. It costs S$500, is not refundable and takes about 10 working days.

URA advises not committing to a lease or a renovation until it has decided. In a conservation area such as Chinatown, Little India, Kampong Glam or Emerald Hill there are extra rules on the use and the shopfront, set out in URA's guide to using buildings in conservation areas, and the sign has to sit within the transom panel above the shopfront.