Singapore
Residential Leasing Briefing Q2 2014
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"The market faces increasing challenges as more supply enters the market over the next 2 years and owners’ resistance to lower tendered rents starts to crumble."
Alan Cheong, Savills Research
Key findings:
• Singapore’s economy grew by 2.4% year-on-year (YoY) in the second quarter of 2014, slower than the 4.8% achieved in Q1.
• The labour market remained tight with the overall seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stabilizing at 2.0% in June 2014. However, employment growth was at the lowest level in four years with 22,000 new jobs in Q2.
• The rental market was active in Q2/2014 with leasing volume of private residential properties reaching a high of 15,053 transactions, translating to a quarterly increase of 12.2%.
• The rental index of private residential homes island-wide continued to slide for a straight third quarter, easing by 0.6%. Similarly, the average monthly rent of high-end condominiums tracked by Savills slipped 1.6% to S$4.77 per sq ft.
• Despite the strong leasing demand in Q2/2014, the vacancy rate of private residential units climbed to 7.1%, reflecting a total of 21,268 vacant private homes islandwide, or a significant jump of 10.3% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ).
• Leasing demand should stay resilient. Rents however, will remain soft across all segments of the market.
http://www.savills.com.sg/research/resi ... earch.aspx
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I like Savills research, and have for a decade+ following them. They report it as they see it, rather than milk+honey PR pieces for the media...