Rental Increases?!!?! :(

[Amelia Camelia]

Hi everyone,

Our tenancy agreement is due to expire in 2 months time. We've just had notification from the landlord that he wants a 30% increase in rent!!

Does anyone else think this is scandalously high?

Is there anything that can be done about this? Why is the market so mad at the moment? We thought the original amount was pretty extortionate. It's all smacks of greed, to be honest. The landlord knows that I'm heavily pregnant and due to give birth any minute.

Are there any laws that prevent this sort of rental hike to take place? If you are PR are there any concessions as such? and finally - I get the impression that things are a lot less consumer-oriented here....

Thanks for any comments or suggestions
Amelia

[huggybear]

Hi everyone,

Hello

Our tenancy agreement is due to expire in 2 months time. We've just had notification from the landlord that he wants a 30% increase in rent!!

Does anyone else think this is scandalously high?

No

Is there anything that can be done about this?

Counter with an offer that you feel is appropriate. If the landlord says no, then start looking at new apartments.

Why is the market so mad at the moment?

More demand then supply.

We thought the original amount was pretty extortionate. It's all smacks of greed, to be honest. The landlord knows that I'm heavily pregnant and due to give birth any minute.

Is the Landlord obligated to provide you a rental rate that is below the current market average? Maybe you should start to see what places in your neighboorhood are renting for? Ideally it would be best to see what the place next door rented for last week...but that data not being available, try to locate a similar apartment and see what the agreed upon rent was.


Are there any laws that prevent this sort of rental hike to take place? If you are PR are there any concessions as such? and finally - I get the impression that things are a lot less consumer-oriented here....

Why is it less consumer oriented?


Thanks for any comments or suggestions
Amelia

[Patrick777]

To be honest my condo in Holland village has gone up by 50% since Nov 06, so 30% is reasonable. We are now the longest serving tennants on our floor as the others have moved on ... It's the same everywhere though I checked out some places we looked at in china town and the east coast and they've gone up by the same amount ..

The really wierd bit was that one of the tennant had been given a 150% hike from when they moved in 2 years ago and the landlord had someone waiting to move in at that price so it was none negotiable etc!

I'm already starting to worry about it and I'm only 7 months into a 2 year deal!

In my firm people who accepted postions from the UK have since decided against coming simply because of the rent situation and also a similar thing with int schools as they are hiking prices also ...

[rhino]

Why is it less consumer oriented?

I think the fact that in terms of rentals, placing your bond money directly with the landlord rather than with some independent Rental Bond Board puts a renter at a disadvantage. Maybe its because of the prevalence of HDBs that one doesn't exist? If there is a dispute at the end of the lease, and the landlord is withholding money (unfairly or otherwise) who adjudicates on the situation?

[German_Expat]

Coming to the subject of security deposit.... we just moved out of a place because our landlord wanted to sell the place. They asked for an increase from $1800 to $3000 and we declined. After that we were harassed to give a moving out date because the owner wanted to sell the apartment. Eventually we did agree to move before the end of our agreement. When it came to refund our security deposit they withheld an amount which they called pro-rated brokerage fee for the remaining days of our agreement. It was us who accomodated them and this is what we received in return. We gave them no excuse whatsoever for withholding any amount at all, we painted teh whole apartment, we polished all the marble floor and re-varnished the parket floors, we newly varnished all bathroom furniture.

Lesson learnt: if I intend to move out of a place I stop paying rent in time to recover my security deposit. There is a clause of 'normal wear and tear' in any rental agreement, use it. Dont do unnecessary work, it will not be appreciated.

[Marlowe]

30% hike is actually on the low side of rental hikes for leases that are coming due. forgive me for being a bit blunt here, but you do sound a bit naive in thinking that somehow there would or should be a law to protect you from the laws of supply & demand.

recommend to give a counter-offer for something a bit less, and if you've been a good tenant they may be willing to accept it so as to avoid the hassle & uncertainty of bringing in a new tenant. but, don't expect much of a break from that because that's just how the market is right now. i think this is a bit of a temporary phenomenon and things will settle down a bit with 6 months or so, but that doesn't help people whose leases are up now.

[huggybear]

30% hike is actually on the low side of rental hikes for leases that are coming due. forgive me for being a bit blunt here, but you do sound a bit naive in thinking that somehow there would or should be a law to protect you from the laws of supply & demand.

recommend to give a counter-offer for something a bit less, and if you've been a good tenant they may be willing to accept it so as to avoid the hassle & uncertainty of bringing in a new tenant. but, don't expect much of a break from that because that's just how the market is right now. i think this is a bit of a temporary phenomenon and things will settle down a bit with 6 months or so, but that doesn't help people whose leases are up now.

HEY!! is there an echo in here????

anyways meet the landlord in person, dress shabby (but have the apartment immaculate) play up the pregnancy, start crying if you can...tell them you have no where to go and will be homeless etc etc etc

all's fair in love, war, divorce, and resigning your lease.
hee

[ScoobyDoes]

all's fair in love, war, divorce, and resigning your lease.
hee

From the landlord side as well, so be prepared.

[Splatted]

30% hike is actually on the low side of rental hikes for leases that are coming due. forgive me for being a bit blunt here, but you do sound a bit naive in thinking that somehow there would or should be a law to protect you from the laws of supply & demand.

Well, it's not naive at all. Many countries do have laws to protect tenants.

Singapore, however, falls into some void of lawlessness when it comes to discussions on consumer rights and tenancies.

[ksl]

Hi everyone,

Hello

Our tenancy agreement is due to expire in 2 months time. We've just had notification from the landlord that he wants a 30% increase in rent!!

Does anyone else think this is scandalously high?

No

Is there anything that can be done about this?

Counter with an offer that you feel is appropriate. If the landlord says no, then start looking at new apartments.

Why is the market so mad at the moment?

More demand then supply.

We thought the original amount was pretty extortionate. It's all smacks of greed, to be honest. The landlord knows that I'm heavily pregnant and due to give birth any minute.

Is the Landlord obligated to provide you a rental rate that is below the current market average? Maybe you should start to see what places in your neighboorhood are renting for? Ideally it would be best to see what the place next door rented for last week...but that data not being available, try to locate a similar apartment and see what the agreed upon rent was.


Are there any laws that prevent this sort of rental hike to take place? If you are PR are there any concessions as such? and finally - I get the impression that things are a lot less consumer-oriented here....

Why is it less consumer oriented?


Thanks for any comments or suggestions
Amelia

Personally huggy, i strongly feel that there should be a tenants charter So that tenants are not exploited, on total speculation!

To say there is a strong demand is not quite true at all, at the moment, our last landlord doubled the rent, and the apartment is still empty, he has no chance especially when there is no air conditioning, and the place is a run down old crap house, but big! 1600 a month not a hope in hell. Theres not even a kitchen, I built my own and took it all down again when i moved, and at the time I thought even 800 a month was a bit much.

And you'll never guess who own it, one of the richest families in Singapore, that are fighting between themselves over their own inherited wealth.

Quite a few Countries have a tenants charter to stop this kind of disruption of settled families and rent officers are called into the arbitration process, This country will eventually wise up, there needs to be legal protection for tenants and I would love to see these greedy landlords suffer a little!

[sundaymorningstaple]

The Singapore Rent Control Act was repealed in 2001. It was in effect since 1947. See here:

http://www.ura.gov.sg/pr/text/pr01-07.html

[EADG]

word!

the feeding frenzy owners have been in since this time last year, and some of the disgusting tactics some RE agents go to (you can ask me if you like) make this look like the wild, wild west

what's scary is how ubiquitous it became and how quickly

these spikes in living expenses are causing both employees considering to move here, and companies considering to relocate people here, to consider that more closely than before, and it's only getting worse

30% hike is actually on the low side of rental hikes for leases that are coming due. forgive me for being a bit blunt here, but you do sound a bit naive in thinking that somehow there would or should be a law to protect you from the laws of supply & demand.

Well, it's not naive at all. Many countries do have laws to protect tenants.

Singapore, however, falls into some void of lawlessness when it comes to discussions on consumer rights and tenancies.

[Amelia Camelia]

Thanks for your replies - they have made for interesting reading. The reason I haven't replied sooner is that I have been gobsmacked, quite frankly, that people are quite happy to think that a 30% rental increase in *one* year is more than acceptable. Especially when I thought I was paying over the odds last year.

I do think market forces only account for half of this rise and it's closer to 15% than 30%, and that it's greedy landlords and agents talking up the market along with tenants who are willing to just accept the increases as a given!

I can't imagine that payrises will be in line with this hike and the government will have to step in if this repeats itself next year because we for one can't weather this level of short-sighted greediness for much longer.

My husband's company doesnt pay for our rent and neither will they compensate us for it so in the end Singapore looks a lot more costly than it ought to. The cost of living isn't the only reason we're here - we really love Singapore but there comes a point at which the standard of living we require becomes just too expensive to maintain, and we're talking about a fairly modest lifestyle.

I think the goal of attracting foreign talent and the great economic growth that Singapore is hoping for won't happen if this contnues and that's exactly why speculative housing markets are dangerous. I definitely think the Government needs to step in at some point for Singapore's sake.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Thanks for your replies - they have made for interesting reading. The reason I haven't replied sooner is that I have been gobsmacked, quite frankly, that people are quite happy to think that a 30% rental increase in *one* year is more than acceptable. Especially when I thought I was paying over the odds last year.

I do think market forces only account for half of this rise and it's closer to 15% than 30%, and that it's greedy landlords and agents talking up the market along with tenants who are willing to just accept the increases as a given!

I can't imagine that payrises will be in line with this hike and the government will have to step in if this repeats itself next year because we for one can't weather this level of short-sighted greediness for much longer.

My husband's company doesnt pay for our rent and neither will they compensate us for it so in the end Singapore looks a lot more costly than it ought to. The cost of living isn't the only reason we're here - we really love Singapore but there comes a point at which the standard of living we require becomes just too expensive to maintain, and we're talking about a fairly modest lifestyle.

I think the goal of attracting foreign talent and the great economic growth that Singapore is hoping for won't happen if this contnues and that's exactly why speculative housing markets are dangerous. I definitely think the Government needs to step in at some point for Singapore's sake.

I don't know how long you have been here already, but I can tell you this much. It can go on for quite a while (years in fact). This is just a taste of what it was like here from 1990~1997 when the Financial Meltdown hit. There were properties out there for 12K plus. It was nothing back then to put western engineers (read that British, Yank, Oz, Kiwi) on major construction contracts into condo's and making them share 3 to a condo with a single car between them. It used to be that it was hard to find a condo anywhere for less the 3.5K and five digits was often see in the prime districts. No, salaries were not in line either. It's doubtful that the government will step in to any great extent. They didn't before. The employers will probably be sending more home unless their staffs are willing to forgo some of the over-the-top perks. (It's not all that bad living in an HDB estate - I been in one for 8 years now.) Either that or companies will start looking to other sources for their staffing needs now that other Asian countries are producing graduates who have overseas experience levels similar to the traditional western ideals.

As far as greedy landlords are concerned, and I think huggybear might be able to give better info here, but a lot of them are the existing landlords of older condo's bought before the '97 meltdown. They have been suffering for the past 7 or 8 years trying to keep from losing their investments as they bought in the overheated days prior to the meltdown and have been in negative equity for years. A lot have been only paying the interest on huge mortgages because of the reduced rentals vrs their investment costs because they bought just before the bubble burst in '97. They are now trying to recoup some of that investment albeit at a rapid rate. I grant you the other ARE out there for the quick kill as well. The government is actually adding fuel to the fire as opposed to quenching the overheating by pumping up the economic outlook figures. (course, the following quarter they usually have to retract and explain why their figures were wrong in the first place!)

[EADG]

the other thing that they need to keep in mind, at least for me as an American, is that the money I make here, although salary is based on what I was making in Japan, but the currency is weaker than some people's homeland's - you notice this when travelling orgoing back home or investing outside

the flip side of course is that the taxes and cost of living is lower than there, but I think that margin is shrinking

not all companies support COLA

we for one can't weather this level of short-sighted greediness for much longer....there comes a point at which the standard of living we require becomes just too expensive to maintain, and we're talking about a fairly modest lifestyle.

I think the goal of attracting foreign talent and the great economic growth that Singapore is hoping for won't happen if this contnues and that's exactly why speculative housing markets are dangerous. I definitely think the Government needs to step in at some point for Singapore's sake.