Singapore condo rents up 0.6% in November; HDB rents down 0.5%: SRX

Year on year, private rents are up by 0.3% from November 2017, while HDB rents are down by 1.3%

 Navin Sregantan

The rental market for private non-landed property in Singapore picked up in November while it slowed for HDB properties, going by flash data from real estate portal SRX on Wednesday.

Rents for condominiums and private apartments in November increased by 0.6 per cent from the previous month. The monthly decline in rents for October was raised to 0.9 per cent from 0.7 per cent estimated earlier.

They were unchanged in August, from an earlier SRX estimate of a 0.1 per cent dip.

Year on year, private rents are up by 0.3 per cent from November 2017. However, compared to their record high in January 2013, they are down by 19.6 per cent.

Going by location, private rents in the prime or core central region (CCR) increased by 1.8 per cent month on month in November, while rents in the city fringes or rest of central region (RCR) grew by 0.6 per cent.

However, rents in the suburbs or outside central region (OCR) declined by 0.3 per cent. Year on year, RCR and OCR rents have risen 1.2 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively, but CCR rents have dropped by 1.5 per cent.

SRX said the number of condo and private apartments leased fell by 11.2 per cent in November to an estimated 3,791 units from 4,271 in October.

Year on year, though, rental volume in November was 11.8 per cent lower than the 4,297 units signed for in November 2017.

Meanwhile, Housing and Development Board (HDB) flat rents in November dipped 0.5 per cent from October.

Year on year, HDB rents are down by 1.3 per cent from November 2017, and off by 15.8 per cent from their last peak in August 2013. SRX revised up the monthly change in October HDB rents to a 0.4 per cent increase from a 0.3 per cent rise.

Fewer HDB flats were also rented out in November with leasings down 10.1 per cent to an estimated 1,706 units from 1,897 the month before, SRX said.

Year on year, rental volume for HDB flats in November was 13.7 per cent lower than the 1,976 rented in November 2017.

Rents for five-room flats inched up 0.3 per cent month on month. Meanwhile, rents for three-room flats, four-room flats, and executive flats decreased by 0.5 per cent, 0.7 per cent and 2.3 per cent respectively.

Rents in mature estates decreased by 0.5 per cent month on month and those in non-mature estates fell 0.6 per cent.

Year on year, rents of mature estates in September slipped 1.2 per cent and rents of non-mature estates fell 1.4 per cent.

Commenting on November’s figures, OrangeTee & Tie’s head of research and consultancy Christine Sun, said: “We have observed more tenants opting for shorter lease periods this year thus generating more leasing transactions in the market. We have also observed more tenants working in the fintech industry lately.”

With plans in place for the fintech space to develop further, Ms Sun said that more expatriates with specialised skills in the development of fintech services could move to Singapore for work, “which may lend support to the rental market in the coming months”.

“Private homes near some of the upcoming digital tech hubs like Buona Vista, Punggol (upcoming Punggol digital district) and downtown core may see better demand.”

This article first appeared in The Straits Times on 13 Dec 2018.