More pain for tenants who engage leasing agents

THANKS to a rental market that started heating up in the last two years, tenants who use the services of an agent to help them lease a home are now expected to pay these agents a commission. This was not the case in the past, as the tenant’s agent usually shares the commission with the landlord’s agent, who in turn collects the commission from the landlord he represents.

This practice of agents taking a commission from their tenants has become the norm – at least for now – and mostly involves corporate clients and foreigners who are new to Singapore. This comes as private home rents shot up 29.7 per cent last year, following a 9.9 per cent rise in 2021. Last year’s rise was the highest annual increase in 16 years since 2007, when rents rose 41.2 per cent.

Property agents told The Business Times (BT) that collecting a commission from the tenants they represent is the edge they need to compete with would-be tenants who approach the landlord’s agent directly.