There was a lull in Singapore's residential rental market in September, as reflected by the latest figures from SRX Property.
For starters, rents for HDB units fell down, decreasing by 0.9 percent from August. Rents for HDB 3 Rooms, HDB 4 Rooms, HDB 5 Rooms, and HDB Executives dipped by 0.9 percent, 0.8 percent, 0.9 percent, and 2.6 percent respectively.
Compared to September 2016, HDB rents were down by 4.1 percent. Rents were also way down its peak in August 2013, down by up to 14.7 percent.
Additionally, the HDB rental market reflected weak demand during the said period, with rental volumes falling short of meeting August's figure of 1,652 units rented. For the month of September, only 1,625 units were leased.
Meanwhile, non-landed private rents also decreased slightly by 0.1 percent compared to August 2017, primarily caused by the 1.7 percent decrease in Rest of Central Region (RCR) rents. The increases in Core Central Region (CCR) and Outside Central Region (OCR) at 0.4 percent and 0.8 percent failed to boost overall rents in the month of September.
On a yearly basis, rents were down 2 percent, with all regions posting slumps of 1.3 percent in CCR, 4.3 percent in RCR, and 0.8 percent in OCR. Compared to its peak in January 2013, the current rental figure was down 19.2 percent.
This came with the 12.6 percent rental volume for the said month. SRX Property recorded an estimated 3,799 Non-landed Private Residential units that were rented during September, down from 4,345 units in August. Year-on-year, rental volume dipped 1.2 percent from September 2016's 3,847 units.
However, the condo market saw hope in the improvement in resale prices in September. SRX Property said non-landed private residential resale prices tick 0.1 percent up compared to August. On a yearly basis, the improvement was more noticeable at 4.3 percent.
This came as resale volume decreased by 10.9 percent, with only 1,162 units resold.
