RENTS for non-landed private homes in Singapore rose 0.6 per cent in April from March, while rents for HDB flats dipped 0.1 per cent, said real estate portal SRX on Wednesday.

Year on year, rents for condominiums and private apartments rose 2.4 per cent, with all regions seeing increases. The core central region (CCR) rose by 2.8 per cent, rest of central region (RCR) by 2.3 per cent and outside central region (OCR) by 2.0 per cent.

But as of last month, private home rents are down by 17.2 per cent from their high in January 2013.

In another sign of the soft market, the number of leasings dropped by 5 per cent to 4,970 units in April from 5,229 units in March. Year on year, volume was 3.6 per cent lower than the 5,157 units rented out a year ago.

In the HDB market, rents crept up 0.2 per cent year on year. But HDB rents are still 15.1 per cent off their peak in August 2013.

Year on year, three-room and four-room rents dipped 0.4 per cent and 0.3 per cent respectively, but five-room rents went up 0.5 per cent. Executive rents stagnated, SRX said.

Rents in mature estates declined by 0.4 per cent, while those in non-mature estates saw a marginal climb of 0.2 per cent compared to March.

HDB rental volume meanwhile fell 11 per cent to 2,006 flats in April versus 2,254 in March. The number rented out is 11.4 per cent lower than the 2,264 flats a year ago.