The rents of Housing Board flats as well as condominiums grew in November despite a drop in demand in the Christmas season.
Rents for condos climbed 0.2 percent from the previous month.
The increase was due to an 0.8% rise in the Outside Central Region (OCR), more than compensating for a decrease of 0.6 % within the Central Region (CCR) as well as the decline of 0.1 percent in the Rest of the Center (RCR).
The market’s growth in private rentals is predicted to last until 2025, with projected growth between 2 and 4 percent. This recovery is expected to be fueled by improving macroeconomic conditions, a rise in possibilities for employment, and the constrained rental inventory.
The month-on-month increase indicates an ongoing recovery after declines in the first half of 2024. It suggests that there could be an upward trend for rental properties in 2025, which is backed by a positive economic outlook.
The price increase in November was “stable” and is due to the reality that landlords aren’t under pressure to reduce rents.
The private housing rental rates for 2024 are likely to remain similar to the previous year’s levels due to the increased demand from a growing job market.
The total amount of units rented out for November 2024 is 5,010, which is a 12.3 percent decrease from 5,712 units rented during the previous month.
The OCR contributed 36.3 per cent of total rental volume, followed by 33.6 percent from RCR and 30.2 percent from CCR.
She was expecting a decrease in condo leasing, since many expatriates have their vacations at the end of the year.
However, some expatriates could decide to renew leases, or sign new lease agreements in December as they’d like to buy a house prior to the start of the new year. This was evident in past SRX reports, showing that rental volumes in December were higher than November’s in 2022 and 2023.
On a year-on-year basis, condominium rental prices fell 1.3 percent because of lower prices across CCR (down 2.4 percent), RCR (down 1.4 per cent) and OCR (down 1.5 per cent) while rental numbers were 0.8 percent more.
Rents for public housing in November climbed 0.4 percent over the month before and prices for mature estates increasing by 0.2 percent and in non-mature estates rising by 0.5 percent.
The four-room rental price supported the growth and grew by 1.3 percent. This offset the declines in five-room homes (down 0.7 percent) and executive apartments (down 1%) since three-room rentals were steady.
HDB’s latest rate of rent increases month-to-month resulted in a rise of 4 percent in the last year.
It’s still lower than the 10.1 per cent increase in HDB rents that will be seen in 2023.
Although HDB rentals are still more affordable than condo rentals, the substantial cost difference is driving demand for HDB flats as an affordable rental option available on the market.
The number of units that were leased by the housing industry for public use fell from 2,499 units to 2,155, a drop of 13,8%. November’s HDB rents in 2024 were 18.3 per cent lower than the average of five years for the month.
Based on the type of flat 32,7 percent of the rental revenue came from three-roomers. 38,1 percent from four-roomers and 24,1% from five-roomers. The remaining 5.1 percent were executive flats.
HDB rents grew by 4.2 percent over the previous year. The volume of rents fell by 20 percent. The cost for all rooms increased year-on-year, with the three-roomers (5.1%) and four-roomers (4.1%) in the lead.
Executive flats experienced an 3.6 percentage increase when compared to November 2023. Five-roomers increased by 2.8 percent..
He is able to see indications of a shift “from a tenants’ market to a landlords’ market.
This is a result of stabilising the rates of rental for condominiums and their volumes as well as gradual improvement in the HDB rental index.
In 2025 in 2025, there will be fewer HDB flats that be completed by the five-year period of minimum occupancy and (become) qualified to be available for rental compared to 2024. Hence, there would be a smaller supply of brand new HDB flats available in the rental market. This may contribute to rental growth.