Singapore private residential rents rise for the first time in nine months

Rents inched up 0.5% in Q3 after three straight quarters of decline.

After three consecutive quarters of decline, the URA’s rental index for island-wide nonlanded private homes saw its first uptick in the third quarter of 2024, rising 0.5% QoQ. 

According to Savills, this recovery was driven by the strong performance of rents in both the RCR and the OCR, which posted 1.7% and 2.2% QoQ growth, respectively. 

Here’s more from Savills:

A resurgence in demand in these two market segments, mainly due to seasonal factors and a shift from public housing units to entry level condominiums driven by a surge in new supply in 2023 and more reasonable rents, may have caused the increase. 

In contrast, the CCR lagged with a 1.6% QoQ rental decline, marking its fifth consecutive quarter of decreases. This decline was largely consistent across units with varying numbers of bedrooms. Given the global economic uncertainty and the relatively limited pool of professional expatriates with substantial housing allowances, this suggests that the CCR still lacks the fundamental conditions for rental growth in the near term. 

Similarly, rents for high-end non-landed private residential projects tracked by Savills continued to decline by 0.9% QoQ in Q3/2024. Combined with the contractions recorded since Q3/2023, average monthly high-end rents have dropped by a cumulative 7.2% from the last peak in Q2/2023 to S$5.75 per sq ft in Q3/2024.