Rents for condominiums rose slightly in March, after seven consecutive months of declines. This was due to the healthy demand from tenants who returned following the Chinese New Year celebrations in February.

After a decline in February, both HDB flats and condo units saw a recovery during the month. The figures are based on the latest estimates from SRX and 99.co, released on 18 April.

The competition for condos has increased, resulting in a slight increase of 0.3 percent. The data revealed that condo rents had fallen by 3.4% year-on-year.

Rents rose 19.1 percent in March compared to February, from 4,766 units.

Rental volumes in March were 14.9% higher than they were a year ago, but 6.9% lower than their five-year average.

Analysts attributed the increase in demand for rental condos to the shrinking price gap between HDBs and condos.

Condos are now a more appealing option for many tenants.

Some analysts believe that the higher leasing demand may be due to landlords who are willing to compromise on rent.

Renting out condos is a better option for landlords than keeping their units vacant to cover mortgage payments and taxes.

The rental gap between HDB and condos is still significant, so it is unlikely that tenants will move from HDB to condos.

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HDB rentals are still more affordable than condos, despite the softening condo rental market. This is due to the strong demand for lower rentals as inflation increases.

The Singapore economy is growing slower than expected, and this could lead to a lower demand for foreign workers, which in turn will reduce the demand for residential rental housing, both HDB flats as well as private housing.

There is also a steady supply for the next 2 years of newly finished private housing units, as well as HDB flats which will be able to be rented by their owners.

In March, the Outside Central Region (OCR), which accounted for 36.4% of the total volume, had the highest leasing activity. The Rest of Central Region, which accounted 32.6 percent of the total rental volume, was closely followed by the Core Central Region.

Rents in RCR rose the most by 0.9 percent, followed closely by rents CCR which increased 0.3 percent. Rents in the OCR, on the other hand, fell by 0.3%.

All regions saw a decrease in rental prices compared to the previous year. The CCR saw the largest decline in prices, with a 5.5% drop, followed by RCR’s 2.6% and OCR’s 2.10%.

HDB rents also rose in March, registering a 0.6% increase from February. The rents increased not only for mature estates but also in non-mature ones.

Rents for mature estates increased by 0.6 percent on a monthly basis and 7.5 percent on a yearly basis, while rents for non-matured estates rose by 0.7 percent on a monthly basis and 8.9 percentage points on a yearly level.

Rents for larger HDB flats increased in March. Five-room flat rents rose by 1.5 percent, while executive flat rents increased by 1.3 percent. Rents for four-room HDB flats increased by 0.3 percent, while rents for three-room HDB flats rose by 0.8 percent.

HDB leasing volume also recovered in March with an increase of 9.8 percent to 2,689 apartments rented, up from 2,448 apartments in February.

The volume was down by 11,1 per cent compared to the average of the last five years for March.

It is possible that the increase in HDB lease demand could be due to an increased number of Malaysians looking for employment in Singapore in order to benefit from the stronger Singapore dollar. Some people may have chosen to remain in Singapore instead of commuting daily.

Three-room and five-room apartments accounted for 33.6% of the rental volume in March. Only 5.7 percent of HDB rental volume was executive flats.