Why did rents prices spike?

[sundaymorningstaple]

thismyvoice,

Not to be a pedant or spelling Nazi, but did you mean to use a illogical word denoting a double negative within itself? Irregardless has a negative prefix and also a negative suffix, thereby connotating the original word regard. So are you trying to say they won't stay if there is a price change?

[thismyvoice]

thismyvoice,

Not to be a pendant or spelling Nazi, but did you mean to use a illogical word denoting a double negative within itself? Irregardless has a negative prefix and also a negative suffix, thereby connotating the original word regard. So are you trying to say they won't stay if there is a price change?

Pardon my bad English. Bad habit of mine.

[revhappy]

I am searching for new house to rent. The agents just told me that rents are shooting up again. The recent rule that owners have to stay in their house for 5 years before renting it out, has badly affected the supply of units.

Also now most units in the market are going to be un-approved and approved units rents are going to go above the roof.

What a bad time to look for a lease

[ksl]

I am searching for new house to rent. The agents just told me that rents are shooting up again. The recent rule that owners have to stay in their house for 5 years before renting it out, has badly affected the supply of units.

Also now most units in the market are going to be un-approved and approved units rents are going to go above the roof.

What a bad time to look for a lease

Actually not, you just have to know the areas to look, mostly the older type buildings that are due for renovation or enblock sale. I only paid 800$ a month for a 3 bedroom 1800sq ft, when i came in 2004, though that was around Jalan Lokam on paya lebar rd. The block is still there and rents are around 12 to 1500$, though no idea if any are empty.

All the owners are waiting for enblock which never comes, so that place is still around, they are the type of buildings to look for. Mind you I had to spend a few hundred to make a kitchen myself. It also depends on which country you are from believe it or not, prices can be bumped up, or down.

I would never believe an housing agent, he's after top $, as they freelance and have to pay for all their own advertising, he may well be under an office but still paying his own advertising fee. Hence the danger of being conned. Better to network with locals if possible and outside of the City, cheaper around serangoon area, or further out in jurong and woodlands. It shouldn't be so hard to pick something up HDB 25 years old, is probably paid for, so they are happy with a cheaper price, I know our neighbour only wanted 2k for a 3 bedroom maisonette, but their agent bumped the price up to 2500 saying it was to cheap. So its actually agents pushing the price up rather than the owners. Both owners were retired and moved in with their kids. So its that type of owner you need to look for, and keep away from the agents.

[durian123]

Definitely agree with ksl - NEVER believe estate agents! Speaking from very recent experience, a handful are good, almost all the others are rubbish, so you're most likely to come across the latter.

Also, in every single country I've lived, I've been told it's a bad time to move in and prices are high: in summer/easter/xmas/any holiday-like period it's because everybody's on holiday so only very few places are available, in september/january it's because everybody's coming back to work (expats, students etc) and it just goes on with a different argument for every season... It's all mostly nonsense and you should happily ignore it.

The URA website mentioned earlier is awesome - shows you what the prices really are in most estates. Definitely comes in handy although a bit too late in my case Still glad to find out I didn't get ripped off

[lisalisadc]

Real Estate Agents are not licensed in SG. Total crap imo. Some regulations for Agents begins next year.

(URL CENSORED DUE TO COPYRIGHT ISSUES)

[ksl]

Real Estate Agents are not licensed in SG. Total crap imo. Some regulations for Agents begins next year.

(URL CENSORED DUE TO COPYRIGHT ISSUES)

6000 are licenced 30,000 are not! Those that are licenced, I will leave a ? when it comes to dealing with them. Too late to try and rectify what's been done! The image will stick for the next generation or until tenants get legal rights, think of it this way, they are all fingered! Which means they have a lot of repair work to do

[hehehe21]

Guys,before you decide to buy your new condo, do search in the website of streetine(please search in google, url is blocked by forum), you can find all transactions(within one year and a half) with unit number and detail block number. Perhaps you could find your dream home was just bought by the greedy investor only few months ago.

[aster]

Unfortunately not in Singapore. Here ppl will wait suffering obvious financial losses just not to rent it below the price they think would be right. This is nothing but the greed mentioned already earlier. This, plus a fear that if they rent with the price too low it would make them loosing their face.

Yeah, and Serviced Apartments do that too for some odd reason, or else it's the fright of seeing one's tenants outraged upon finding out that some pay drastically more than others.

I've seen price hikes of almost 50% in the last 6 mths even though I know they are nowhere near full capacity, so it's nothing to do with how well they're filling up their suites. Or maybe some of these people are being paid bonuses for hiring out apartments above a certain threshold so they no longer care about the bottom line of the entire business but just about bringing in gullible clients every now and then.

[jennys]

rents spike because singapore is becoming world-class. aka world class rents.

of course its really difficult to reconcile the fact that you can travel 50km north of the causeway for essentially the same thing, and maybe halve your living costs.

[mummy mantras]

It's a money-making game that everyone wants to play, as long as they think they have enough cash to do it.

A friend of my husband actually does it for a living... He used to rent older and slightly dodgy places (houses, condos, etc.) for periods of 5 years or more. Then, he'd improve the interior slightly (coat of paint on the walls, new kitchen cabinets, cheap but cheerful Ikea furniture, etc.) and then rent it out again to someone else for 2 or 3 times what he's paying for it. Then, he's pocket the difference and use the money to fund yet another flip scam somewhere else. In case you're wondering, during this period, he'd live in some other cheap rental unit somewhere (usually with cockroaches and a mouldy sofa for company) or he'd go back to his parents' place and crash in their spare bedroom (he's their only son, so they're pretty forgiving).

Eventually, he accumulated enough cash to put a downpayment on a beautiful $2.2 million Peranakan-style conservation shophouse in Katong, and just as we all thought he'd move in there with his new wife (he'd somehow managed to convince his long-suffering girlfriend to marry him). He promptly moved her, their 2 dogs, and all the household possessions that they'd purchased so far back to his parents' place, because he'd gotten such a good rental offer on his new house!

Needless to say, his wife was pretty pissed... but he says that this is the way the game is played in Singapore! Sigh...

[nakatago]

It's a money-making game that everyone wants to play, as long as they think they have enough cash to do it.

A friend of my husband actually does it for a living... He used to rent older and slightly dodgy places (houses, condos, etc.) for periods of 5 years or more. Then, he'd improve the interior slightly (coat of paint on the walls, new kitchen cabinets, cheap but cheerful Ikea furniture, etc.) and then rent it out again to someone else for 2 or 3 times what he's paying for it. Then, he's pocket the difference and use the money to fund yet another flip scam somewhere else. In case you're wondering, during this period, he'd live in some other cheap rental unit somewhere (usually with cockroaches and a mouldy sofa for company) or he'd go back to his parents' place and crash in their spare bedroom (he's their only son, so they're pretty forgiving).

Eventually, he accumulated enough cash to put a downpayment on a beautiful $2.2 million Peranakan-style conservation shophouse in Katong, and just as we all thought he'd move in there with his new wife (he'd somehow managed to convince his long-suffering girlfriend to marry him). He promptly moved her, their 2 dogs, and all the household possessions that they'd purchased so far back to his parents' place, because he'd gotten such a good rental offer on his new house!

Needless to say, his wife was pretty pissed... but he says that this is the way the game is played in Singapore! Sigh...

Is there a "I agree with this but it doesn't mean I like this" button?

In lieu of what google is cooking up,

+1