Singapore’s rental market continues to soften.
Rental prices of prime residential property in Singapore dropped by 3.6 percent in Q1 2016 compared to the same period last year, according to Knight Frank’s Prime Global Rental Index.
The overall index, which tracks the change in luxury residential rents across 17 global cities, fell for a third consecutive quarter, with rents falling on average by 0.5 percent in the year to March 2016.
In fact, 11 cities recorded flat or falling prime rents over the last 12 months.
Toronto leads the rankings with prime rents increasing by 8.9 percent in the year to March 2016, followed by Guangzhou with 5.3 percent growth.
Nairobi occupies the bottom ranking after rents slipped by 7.9 percent. This is preceded by Hong Kong, which saw a decrease of 5.2 percent.
Nicholas Holt, Head of Research for Asia Pacific at Knight Frank, said: “Real estate markets in Asia have been sensitive to the wider macro-economic environment in 2016, as demonstrated by the prime residential rental performance in the seven major Asian cities tracked.
“Singapore and Hong Kong, the two cities with significant export exposure have seen rents soften, while mainland Chinese cities have seen more varied performance, with Shanghai still seeing rental growth on the back of a robust local economy.
“Looking forward, the political uncertainty in Europe and the US will likely weigh on the region for the second half of the year, depressing rental growth prospects.”
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
