Rents of private homes slip 0.8%, HDB flats down 0.9% in Nov: SRX

THE residential leasing market remained soft last month, with both private home rents and HDB flat rents continuing their downward drift.

Private rents slipped 0.8 per cent in November from a month ago, according to flash estimates by SRX Property. HDB flat rents fell 0.9 per cent during the same period.

The rental drag in the private segment came from all regions, with the prime or Core Central Region (CCR) down 0.7 per cent; and the city-fringe or Rest of Central Region (RCR) and the suburban or Outside Central Region both falling 0.9 per cent.

HDB three-room, four-room and HDB five-room flats saw rental declines of 1.6 per cent, 0.5 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively, while rents for HDB executive flats inched up 0.8 per cent during the month.

But the decline in rents - which has left private home rents down 18.9 per cent from its peak in January 2013 and HDB flat rents down 12.2 per cent compared to its peak in August 2013 - did not spur greater rental transactions in November, based on SRX Property estimates.

The estimated rental volume of 3,811 private units in November was 0.5 per cent lower than in October, though it is 20.8 per cent more than in November 2015. SRX Property's estimate for HDB rental volume at 1,747 HDB flats in November was also 1.3 per cent lower than in October and 7.3 per cent lower compared to November 2015.

Flash reports on rentals by SRX Property typically capture around 80 per cent of the month's transactions on average at the time of their publication.

Volume estimates for transactions not yet captured are based on the estate agencies' historical submission pattern and timeline, taking into account seasonal periods during the year.