Air-con servicing demand more than doubles in Asia's richest country as haze worsens

Demand for air-conditioner servicing in Singapore more than doubled in September from a year earlier as worsening haze and hot weather prompted households and businesses to seek maintenance.

Home services platform StringsSG recorded 792 servicing requests during the month, up from 297 in September 2025, according to The Straits Times.

Demand continued to climb in October, with requests from Oct. 1 to 10 rising 23% compared with the corresponding periods in September and October 2025.

The surge comes as Singapore, Asia's richest country by GDP per capita, faces worsening haze linked to forest fires in neighboring Indonesia. The city-state has repeatedly topped Swiss air-quality monitoring company IQAir's live ranking of the world's most polluted major cities, including on the morning of Oct. 15.

Air-conditioning companies reported increases of 15% to 30% in servicing demand and customer inquiries in recent months as households and businesses sought to keep their units running efficiently.

According to Singapore's SP Group, household air conditioners generally require professional servicing every three to six months, depending on usage and environmental conditions. Units used heavily or exposed to prolonged haze may need more frequent maintenance.

Dirty filters can restrict airflow, reduce cooling efficiency and increase electricity consumption.

However, regular servicing does not necessarily make air conditioners effective at removing harmful PM2.5 particles, which are fine airborne pollutants measuring 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter. Standard household units are designed primarily for cooling, while effective removal of fine particles requires suitable filtration systems, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The growing demand for servicing has also coincided with increased recruitment for air-conditioning technicians.

Julian Tan, founder and CEO of recruitment platform FastJobs, said technician job postings more than doubled in the July-to-September quarter, although they remained below levels recorded a year earlier. Employers have struggled to find qualified candidates, prompting more companies to recruit directly rather than through employment agencies. Job postings placed directly by employers nearly doubled year-on-year, Tan said.

The industry has also attracted university graduates. Jiahao, 27, a first-class honors graduate of the National University of Singapore, chose to help expand his father's air-conditioning servicing business rather than pursue a corporate career, 8days reported.

Despite the increase in demand, several servicing companies said they had neither raised prices nor planned to hire additional technicians.