Residential rents seen buoyant in Q2

The volume of residential leases is expected to be buoyant in this current quarter (Q2), even as hiring slows and businesses are looking to restructure their expatriate manpower needs.

With home prices on the rise and the recently implemented Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty, lease demand has been increasing and is expected to continue doing so, especially for non-landed homes.

The trend is already showing in the first two months of this year which saw the total number of transactions hovering above 3,000 for each.

For non-landed homes, rents edged up one per cent month-on-month to hit $3.53 per sq ft per month in February. This represents an 8 per cent increase on a year-on-year basis.

As for landed property, median rents rose 6 per cent month-on-month to $2.77 psf per month, a 14 per cent rise from the year-ago period.

Taken together, islandwide median rents for the first two months of this year reached a transaction value of $35 million, a 15 per cent increase from the previous year.

For high-end, non-landed residential property, the average monthly rent dipped 2 per cent on a quarterly basis to $5.17 in the first three months of the year.

On a year-on-year basis, prime rents dropped 5 per cent from $5.45 psf per month in Q1 last year.

Residential rents seen buoyant in Q2

THE volume of residential leases is expected to be buoyant in this current quarter (Q2), even as hiring slows and businesses are looking to restructure their expatriate manpower needs.

With home prices on the rise and the recently implemented Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty, lease demand has been increasing and is expected to continue doing so, especially for non-landed homes.

The trend is already showing in the first two months of this year which saw the total number of transactions hovering above 3,000 for each.

For non-landed homes, rents edged up one per cent month-on-month to hit $3.53 per sq ft per month in February. This represents an 8 per cent increase on a year-on-year basis.

As for landed property, median rents rose 6 per cent month-on-month to $2.77 psf per month, a 14 per cent rise from the year-ago period.

Taken together, islandwide median rents for the first two months of this year reached a transaction value of $35 million, a 15 per cent increase from the previous year.

For high-end, non-landed residential property, the average monthly rent dipped 2 per cent on a quarterly basis to $5.17 in the first three months of the year.

On a year-on-year basis, prime rents dropped 5 per cent from $5.45 psf per month in Q1 last year.

Source: Business Times – 25 April 2012