Private home rents halt 4-year slide but only on uptick for landed properties: URA data

Overall rents of private homes stood unchanged quarter-on-quarter for the three months to Sept 30, against a 0.2 per cent decline in the second quarter. PHOTO: ST FILE

SINGAPORE - An uptick in rents of landed properties has arrested the 15-quarter slide in private residential rents, data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed on Friday (Oct 27).

The overall rents of private homes stood unchanged quarter on quarter for the three months to Sept 30, against a 0.2 per cent decline in the second quarter.

But this was thanks to a 0.6 per cent rise for landed homes, which reversed the previous quarter's 0.1 per cent decline.

Condominiums and private apartments, on the other hand, continued to suffer a rental decrease, dipping by 0.1 per cent in the third quarter after declining by 0.2 per cent in the second quarter.

These private residences have been seeing a downward trend in rentals since 2013's third quarter.

Within the category of non-landed homes, the core central region and outside the central region of the island both took a hit.

Rentals in the core central region dropped by 0.8 per cent in the third quarter of 2017, after notching a 0.1 per cent gain the quarter before.

Rentals outside the core central region slid by 0.3 per cent to follow the previous quarter's 0.6 per cent decline.

It was better news for homes in the rest of the central region, where rentals grew by 0.9 per cent after having fallen by 0.4 per cent before.

Still, the vacancy rate climbed across the board, with 8.4 per cent of all private homes standing unoccupied - up from 8.1 per cent in the previous quarter. This figure excludes executive condominiums.

The higher vacancies came on the back of a slightly higher increase in stock, as 3,974 units hit the private residential pool in the third quarter.

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