Singapore private residential leasing volumes down 9.8% in Q3

The steepest decline was recorded in the Core Central Region.

According to a Savills report, the elevated economic uncertainty, a weaker labour market and poorer business sentiment continued to weigh on foreign demand for private residential leasing in Singapore. 

The completion of 15,883 private residential units in the first three quarters of 2023 also helped to reduce local leasing demand, as homebuyers, who rented homes in the interim, have begun to move into their new homes. 

Here’s more from Savills:

Going by the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) statistics, a total of 23,145 private homes island-wide were rented out in the July-September period. Although a seasonal rebound was seen in Q3/2023 with a 17.3% QoQ growth, the leasing volume of private residential properties in the reviewed quarter was still 9.8% less than the 25,657 recorded in Q3/2022. 

This is also 12.8% lower than the average Q3 leasing volume in the last five years from 2018 to 2022. By market segments, the biggest YoY decrease was in Core Central Region (CCR) with 10.4%, followed by Rest of Central Region (RCR) with 10.1% and Outside Central Region (OCR) with 9.0%. 

Except for D’Leedon which is always popular among tenants, the others on the list of top five non-landed projects with the highest leasing volume in Q3/2023 were, in the RCR, Kent Ridge Hill Residences, The Woodleigh Residences and Avenue South Residence and in the OCR, Riverfront Residences. As the large developments with a variety of unit types were completed in the quarters since Q1/2023, these were able to attract a steady stream of tenants and given their newness, could command a rental premium. 

Meanwhile, a check of leases signed year-to-date showed that 82.3% of the leasing transactions in the above mentioned four new projects were between 400 to 800 sq ft which are often one- and two-bedroom units. 

Owing to the fact that these are newly completed projects with new furnishings and facilities, it is therefore not surprising that the median rents achieved in them were relatively high and even surpassed many other well-known developments in the central location.