Demand causes rents for some 5-room HDB flats to soar to over $6,000

Singapore has unseated New York as the city with the

strongest rental growth

globally, after the costs of renting homes here hit a record high in March. The hike even spilt to the Housing Board market, with some five-room flats in Ang Mo Kio and Cantonment Road scoring record monthly rents of over $6,000 a month.

Private rents rose by 9.3 per cent from 2019 to 2021, and escalated further by 29.7 per cent year on year in 2022 – the fastest annual growth since 2007. In the same year, HDB rents rose at their quickest pace in 15 years – by 28.6 per cent.