Private apartment rents down 3.2% in June

Singapore

SRX Property's June 2017 flash estimates show that rentals of private apartments and condos have eased 3.2 per cent year on year and also retreated 19.1 per cent from their peak in January 2013.

In the public housing segment, rents of HDB flats have also shed 4 per cent year on year and are 13.5 per cent lower than their peak in August 2013.

But all is not gloom and doom, according to some property consultants. The reduced pipeline of private home completions will ease downward rental pressure. Moreover an improving economy and the recent reduction in the minimum-stay period for private homes will increase the pool of tenants and help support private residential rentals.

At least one property consultant has made an even bolder prediction: that rents in prime areas are poised for a recovery by year-end. Savills Singapore research head Alan Cheong predicts that rents of non-landed private homes in the Core Central Region (CCR) will increase 1.5 per cent this year (December 2017 versus December 2016) - a reversal of his earlier forecast of a 5 per cen…