Singapore private residential rents to remain flat this year

The strong rental performance recently is attributed to seasonal factors.

According to a Savills report, the strong QoQ performance for rents in Singapore’s non-landed private housing market is mainly being driven by seasonal factors and the completion of new condominiums.

“The start of the academic year for international schools has traditionally been the booster for lease renewals and locational shifts amongst tenants with families. This year has been no exception,” the report said.

Here’s more from Savills:

While the strong rental showing and the decline in vacancies appear to show a resilient leasing market, it may be masking hidden weaknesses. We believe that much of the rental increase in Q3/2025 was probably front loaded to July and August as most major international schools here begin their year in mid-August.

The completion of 1,776 units of private residential housing units in the quarter also opened avenues for tenants to move into new units with modern common facilities, household appliances and bathroom fixtures. This newness factor may have pushed some to pay more in rent, take up an entire lease for themselves instead of sharing an apartment, or move from renting public flats to private ones.

Moving ahead, the pace of rental market activity may moderate because business uncertainty has remained elevated for over a year and the Liberation Day tariffs have not helped. Companies may soon begin taking remedial action to reduce operation costs even more significantly than before. Although the URA rental index has increased 2.4% year-to-date, we maintain our forecast for private residential rents to remain flat for 2025, give or take some minor deviations from that baseline.