Costs of having a high ceiling at home in Singapore [2025]

High ceilings make the space look more spacious and can help increase air ventilation. The tall walls open up opportunities for aesthetic and bold designs like oversized artwork and large wall moldings. You can also grow a very tall indoor plant. But, there are some extra costs to bear when living in a home with high ceilings.

Looking at a house with higher ceilings? Here are some costs to take into consideration.

• More labour and materials/wires are required for lights and fan. Higher installation charges for ceiling fixtures like lights and ceiling fans. For example, the installation costs for a ceiling fan quoted by the installer from the fan manufacturer is $80, but it would be $120 for ceilings above 3m. Same for ceiling lights. Additionally, you would have to add an extension rod to lower the fan to be closer to the ground as the wind would not be strong if the fan was too far from the floor.
• Wall painting charges are much higher for >3m due to the more complex labour required and also, more litres of paint required.
• Built-in carpentry that floor to ceiling would incur higher material costs.
• Curtains are also more expensive as more curtain fabrics to extend from floor to ceiling. I recently learnt that the advertised as free measure and quote from Spotlight curtains are actually not free for non-BTOs (eg private property) as there would $50 transport fee (only refundable if >$500 spend)
• Limited options for manual and automatic clothes dryers as many clothers dryer can extend to not more than 2 meters.
• Installation of wall and glass partitions are disproportionally more expensive.
• More powerful aircon is required to lower a large volume of space. The aircon for houses with higher ceilings needs to be have higher btu or more units https://www.nea.gov.sg/our-services/climate-change-energy-efficiency/energy-efficiency/household-sector/choosing-the-right-cooling-capacity-for-your-air-conditioner. But with a high ceiling, there can be better temperature regulation which might mean it's less likely you would need to use the air conditioning.
• Houses with high ceiling tend to have larger windows, so if you are getting solar films, you would have to pay for a higher film area.

Having higher ceilings might not be worth the extra costs, but one alternative is using effective visual methods to make standard-height ceilings look taller.