Not entirely accurate. Normal practice in SG is that two agents are involved, the "landlord's agent" and the "tenant's agent." The typical agent fee is 1 month per year of contract (so if you sign a 2 year contract they would charge 2 months), shared between both agents, for which the tenant pays half to his agent, and the landlord pays half to his agent.

Normally these are not the landlord's agent. These are the landlord's agent's teammates, friends, colleagues, whoever. Once you get in touch with them then they will then represent you and therefore become the tenant's agent. The idea is that your agent is supposed to defend your interests, and the landlord's agent is supposed to defend his/her interests.

For a 2 year lease, you need to up front 2 months deposit and 1st month rental to the landlord, and 1 month (+7% GST) agent fee to your agent.