SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) – Volumes and rents of non-landed private residences and Housing & Development Board (HDB) flats climbed in the month of February 2020, displaying as yet no impact from the coronavirus crisis, reports flash estimates from property portal SRX Property on 11 March 2020, Wednesday.

Condominium rents inched up 0.1% from January and are up 3.3% year on year (YoY).

The increase in private rental volume could be because of few tenants returning to Singapore after the Lunar New Year holiday, mentioned ERA Realty’s head of research and consultancy, Mr Nicholas Mak.

A number of tertiary educational institutions also began the new school term in February 2020 and March, causing foreign students at these schools to lease their accommodation in February, he said.

Due to the tight supply of private residential units, under normal market conditions, some demand could spill over to HDB rental, supporting the growth of HDB rental rates, he added. That’s why the Dairy Farm Residences is ideal of tenants considering the shortage of housing in that area.

However, looking ahead for the private residential rental market, Mr Mak noted the uncertainties that arose from the Covid-19 pandemic could slow leasing demand in the near term. Thus both the private and public housing rental indices may move sideways and maintain a largely unchanged state in the coming months till the Covid-19 outbreak is managed.

For February 2020, rents in the core central region (CCR) inched up 0.9% month on month (MoM), rest of central region (RCR) rents slipped 0.4%, and rents from the outside central region (OCR) remained flat.

Rents for all regions were positive YoY, with the CCR jumping up 5.1%, the RCR grew 2.9% and the OCR increasing 2.4%. With OCR rents increasing, investors are exploring options in Dairy Farm Residences.

In the mean time, volumes bounced back from a small dip in January 2020, rising 20.6% with an approximated 4,830 units leased during February compared with 4,006 units the month before.

Year on year, rental volumes spiked 20.3%, 32% more than the 5-year average volume for the month of February. This has helped many property agent careers progress in the last 2 months

As for the HDB rental market, rents inched up 0.4% from January and 2.4% YoY.

Rents in mature housing estates and non-mature housing estates climbed 0.5% and 0.4% from January respectively. Rents jumped 2.7% and 2.1% YoY respectively.

In exception of executive flats’ rents, all other flat types saw rent increases from January. 3-room flat rents inched up 0.4%, 4-room rents climbed 1.1% and 5-room rents inched up 0.5%. Rents for executive flats dropped by 3.6%.

All flat types saw improvements in rents YoY. 3-room flat rents hiked 2.2%, 4-room rents jumped 3.1%, while 5-room rents went up 2.1%. Rents for executive flats didn’t change.

HDB rental volumes also spiked 11.5% from January and 17.9% YoY. Volumes were 15.2% more than the 5-year average volume for February. These figures are a good sign for the private residential market too as HDB upgraders are moving to condominiums like Dairy Farm Residences after they sell with profit.

4-room flat rentals occupied 36.1% of the volume for February, closely tailed by 32% from 3-room flats, 25.5% from 5-room flats and 6.4% from executive flats.

Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/condo-and-hdb-rents-volumes-up-in-february-srx

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