Private condo rents rose, HDB flat rents fell in January: SRX

RENTS for private condominiums marked a monthly increase in January, reversing from the past 11 consecutive months of decline, but rents for public housing flats continued to slide, according to estimates by the Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX).

The SRX Rental Property Price Index that tracks non-landed private residential units here posted a 0.2 per cent increase in January from a month ago, driven mainly by the Rest of Central Region (RCR) that saw rents increase by 1.9 per cent.

Private condo rents in the Outside Central Region inched up 0.2 per cent while rents in the Core Central Region (CCR) decreased by 0.8 per cent.

An estimated 3,417 private condos were rented in January, representing a 13 per cent rise from 3,025 units rented in December and marking a 16.1 per cent year-on-year increase from the 2,944 units rented in January 2014.

The SRX Property Price Index for HDB rentals posted a decline of 0.5 per cent in January compared to December 2014, with four-room, five-room and executive flats posting declines of 1.3 per cent, 0.3 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively. Three-room flats saw a 0.3 per cent pick-up in rents over the month.

Year-on-year, HDB flat rents in January fell 1.6 per cent from January 2014. But rental volumes of HDB flats marked a month-on-month rise of 4.4 per cent to an estimated 1,651 HDB flats in January - almost flat compared to a year ago.