Rents of condos, HDB flats in Singapore up in January

RENTS of private non-landed homes rose 0.2 per cent in January 2016 compared to a month ago, estimates from SRX Property show.

This increase follows a 0.4 per cent rise in December, marking a second consecutive month of increase after 10 consecutive months of decline since February 2015.

Still, rents in January were some 14.6 per cent lower than the peak in January 2013 and 5.5 lower than that in January 2015, SRX Property said on Friday.

The rent uplift in January for private homes came mainly from the city fringe or the Rest of Central Region and the suburban area or the Outside Central Region, which saw rental increases of 1.2 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively. Private homes in the Core Central Region, however, experienced a 2.4 per cent fall in rents in January from December.

January's rental uplift was accompanied by more rental transactions of private non-landed homes, which registered a 15 per cent month-on-month jump to an estimated 3,411 transactions and a 1.2 per cent year-on-year slide.

In the public housing market, rents of Housing & Development (HDB) flats rose 0.7 per cent in January from December, with month-on-month rental increases registered across all HDB flat types.

HDB rents in January were down 3.1 per cent from a year ago and 8 per cent below the peak in August 2013.

HDB rental volume contracted by 5.4 per cent in January from a month ago to an estimated 1,670 flats - a 17.7 per cent decrease from January 2015.