These Singapore districts command the highest average rents for 3-bedroom units

Rents were as high as S$8,500 per month.

Savills Research shared that the top three highest average* median rents for 3-bedroom** units, excluding outliers***, were in Districts 1 (Boat Quay/Marina/Raffles Place), 4 (Harbourfront/Telok Blangah) and 9 (Orchard/River Valley) as at Q4 2024.

Rents in these districts were at S$8,500, S$8,250 and S$7,400 per month, respectively.

Here’s more from Savills:

Rents in these districts, except for District 4 (Harbourfront/Telok Blangah), were lower than the previous quarter. Quarter-on-quarter (QoQ), they dropped by 1.7% to S$8,500 per month in District 1 (Boat Quay/Marina/Raffles Place), and 2.6% to S$7,400 per month in District 9 (Orchard/River Valley). There was an increase by 3.1% to S$7,400 per month in District 4 (Harbourfront/Telok Blangah).

The rents for 1-to-5-bedroom units declined across all market segments in Q4/2024. They fell by 1.4% QoQ in the Core Central Region (CCR), 0.2% QoQ in the Rest of Central Region (RCR) and 1.9% QoQ in the OCR (Outside Central Region).

However, overall rents increased for 1-to-3-bedroom units (the more popular rental types) across these three market segments in the fourth quarter. On a quarterly basis, rents in the CCR increased 0.7%, and for the RCR and OCR submarkets, they went up by 0.8% and 0.5% respectively. The average increase for 1-to-3 bedrooms was 0.6% QoQ.

This recovery seemed to be heterogenous with the smaller bedroom types recording increases while the larger ones experienced weakness. Compared to a year ago (Q4/2023), rents are still lower than they were (-3.1%). On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, excluding outliers, rents fell 3.2% for the 1-to-5-bedroom units, as well as for 1-to-3-bedroom units.

On a YoY basis, in Q4/2024, rents for the 1-5-bedroom types in the CCR continued to fall the most, down by 3.6%. This was followed by the OCR and RCR with declines of 3.2% and 2.8% respectively.

George Tan, Managing Director, Livethere Residential, Savills Singapore says, “We may have seen a turnaround in rents in Q4, but limited supply for 2025 may inject some stability in the prices. While the demand for larger units have slightly softened, the demand for smaller unit types remained resilient. Tenants for larger apartments have better deals, while landlords of smaller units benefit from stable demand. In their consideration for home search, tenants generally look for well-located projects such as accessibility to the MRT stations, amenities such as malls and lifestyle preferences.”

Alan Cheong, Executive Director, Research & Consultancy, Savills Singapore comments, “We believe that although business conditions continue to remain challenging with interest rates now likely to stay higher and for longer, the fact that rents have fallen from its highs in 2023 may induce some to move out of the HDB rental market to the private end.

For 2025, an even lower number of completions (around 5,900 units) is expected. Therefore, while net new to market tenant demand may be weak, rents may be supported by the lower number of new unit completions in 2025. We anticipate rents to stay sideways this year.”

*: The average is taken to the average of the 25th, 50th and 75th percentile combined.

**: The size of 3-bedroom units can vary across market segments, ranging from 900 to >1100 square feet in the mass market and mid-tier market. In luxury district condos, sizes typically range from 1,500 to 2,000 sq ft while super luxury apartments for example in Sentosa, sizes can exceed 3,000 sq ft.

***: Outliers are those having about more than 1.96 standard deviations of rental change from the average.