Condo rents rise 1% in Feb, HDB rents up 0.5%

Private non-landed home rents rose by 1 per cent in February 2018 from a month ago, higher than the 0.5 per cent rise in January.

In individual sectors, non-landed private residential unit rents in core central region (CCR), rest of central region (RCR), and outside central region (OCR) all rose, increasing by 2.3 per cent, 0.2 per cent, and 0.7 per cent respectively.

On a year-on-year basis, rents last month were down by 0.7 per cent from February 2017.

The OCR led with the biggest drop of 2.3 per cent, followed by a 0.1 per cent drop in the RCR.

In the CCR, however, rents saw a 0.6 per cent increase.

Rents in February 2018 were down by 18.8 per cent compared to their peak in January 2013.

Some 3,376 non-landed private residential units were rented in February, SRX said.

This was down from the 4,242 units rented in January 2018, a fall of 20.4 per cent.

On the public housing front, HDB rents rose by 0.5 per cent in February 2018 from a month ago.

Breaking it down, rents for HDB executive units fell by 0.2 per cent, while HDB three-, four- and five-room units all rose, increasing by 0.7 per cent, 0.3 per cent and 0.7 per cent respectively.

Compared to a year ago, HDB rents last month were down 1.9 per cent from February 2017.

They are lower by 14.8 per cent from their peak in August 2013.

HDB rental flat volumes fell by 19.1 per cent in February to 1,441 flats leased from 1,781 in January this year.

Year-on-year, February's rental volume fell by 11.8 per cent from a year ago.

Adapted from StraitsTime, March 14, 2018.