Private rents up 0.2%; HDB rents continued to decline by 0.5%

A. Non-Landed Private Residential Rental Market

1. Private rents showed slight uptick. According to the SRX Rental Property Price Index for Non-landed Private Residential, rents posted a 0.2% increase in January 2015 compared to December 2014.  The rent increase was driven mainly by RCR region which saw rent increased by 1.9%. OCR was up by 0.2% while rents in CCR decreased by 0.8%.

According to the SRX Property Price Index for Non-landed Private Rentals:

• Rents have been falling for 11 consecutive months before January 2015.
• Year-on-year, rents in January 2015 are down 5.9% from January 2014.
• Rents in January 2015 are 9.6% down compared to its peak in January 2013.
• The rents change in December 2014 has been revised from a 0.8% decrease to a 0.5% decrease.

2. Rental volume increased. According to SRX Property, an estimated 3,417 Non-landed Private Residential units were rented in January 2015.  This represents a 13.0% increase from 3,025 units rented in December 2014. 

• Year-on-year, the estimated rental volume in January 2015 is 16.1% higher compared to 2,944 units rented in January 2014.

B. HDB Rental Market

1. HDB rents continued to fall. According to the SRX Property Price Index for HDB Rentals, rents posted a decline of 0.5% in January 2015 compared to December 2014. HDB 4, 5-Room and Executive flats posted declines in rent by 1.3%, 0.3% and 1.6% respectively. 3 Room flats on the other hand saw a pick-up in rents by 0.3%.

According to the SRX Property Price Index for HDB Rentals:

• Year-on-year, rents in January 2015 are down 1.6% from January 2014.
• Rents in December are 5.2% down compared to its peak in August 2013.
• The rents change in December 2014 has been revised from a 0.4% decrease to a 0.7% decrease.

According to the SRX Property Price Sub-Indices for HDB Rentals in Mature and Non-mature Estates:

• Rents dropped in both Mature and Non-mature Estates in January 2015.
• Rents of Non-mature Estates in December have dropped 6.9% from its peak in October 2012.
• Rents of Mature Estates in December have dropped 4.4% from its peak in February 2013.

2. HDB rental volume increased. According to the SRX Property, an estimated 1,651 HDB flats were rented in January 2015. This represents a 4.4% increase from 1,581 units rented in December 2014. 

• Year-on-year, rental volume in January 2015 is almost flat compared to 1,667 units rented in January 2014.