Demand for renting Housing Board flats dropped sharply last month, with market observers saying that this was due to the circuit breaker measures implemented in April, which prevented prospective tenants from visiting and viewing properties offered for lease.
Flash data released by real estate portal SRX Property on Wednesday (May 13) in the HDB rental market showed that leasings fell last month by 36.7 per cent to 1,260 flats compared with 1,990 in March.
HDB rental volumes in April were also down by 41.3 per cent from a year ago. They were also 39.3 per cent lower than the five-year average volume for the month.
Of these leasings in April, 36.1 per cent are for four-room flats, 30.8 per cent for three-room units, 26.5 per cent for five-room units, and 6.6 per cent for executive flats.
SRX estimates also showed that rental prices for HDB units in April fell by 0.2 per cent from March.
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Of these, rents for flats in mature estates fell 0.9 per cent, while those in non-mature estates rose 0.7 per cent.
Based on flat size, rents for three-room and executive units fell by 0.3 per cent and 1.6 per cent respectively, while rents for four-room flats increased by 0.1 per cent and five-room flat rents remained stable.
Year on year, HDB rental prices rose 1.3 per cent in April, but they were still 14.1 per cent down from their peak in August 2013.
Except for executive flat rents which decreased by 0.7 per cent, rental prices for all other HDB flat types rose year on year - three-room units by 1.5 per cent, four-room flats by 1 per cent and five-room units by 1.3 per cent.
Mature estate and non-mature estate flat rents also rose year-on-year by 0.3 per cent and 2.3 per cent respectively.
Mature estate and non-mature estate flat rents also rose year-on-year by 0.3 per cent and 2.3 per cent respectively.
Source: SRX (13 May 2020)
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