RENTS for public housing flats stabilised in 2023 after spiking 35 per cent in 2022, Parliament heard on Tuesday (Apr 2).

In 2021, the average year-on-year increase in open market rents for Housing and Development Board (HDB) three-room, four-room and five-room flats was 5 per cent. This increased to 35 per cent in 2022, but dropped to 10 per cent in 2023, said Indranee Rajah, Second Minister for National Development.

The minister was responding to a question raised by Member of Parliament Louis Chua, who asked what was the average increase in open market rents for HDB three-room, four-room and five-room flats. 

The surge in open market rents in 2022 was due to the opening-up of border restrictions and the recovery of non-resident rental demand, noted Indranee.

In her reply, Indranee said that rents had increased in the past three years “due to unprecedented supply-side constraints and increased rental demand arising from Covid-19”.

The ministry has since implemented measures to support households that need to rent, which include increasing both private and public housing supply, temporarily relaxing the occupancy cap for larger HDB flats and private residential properties.

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In addition, the ministry also announced in Budget 2024 the ramping up of rental flats supply under the Parenthood Provisional Housing Scheme. 

This scheme aims to provide a temporary housing option for families with less disposable income to rent a flat while waiting for their HDB flats to be completed.

Data from SRX and 99.co in March showed that rents of HDB flats grew 1 per cent in February from the previous month to a new all-time high, although rental volumes fell 19.1 per cent to 2,448 flats rented, from 3,027 units in January.

Rent increases were observed for all room types year on year.

SRX said that rents for executive flats grew by 9 per cent, five-room rents were up 8.1 per cent and four-room rents increased 8.5 per cent.

Rents for three-room units grew 7.8 per cent.