Rents and rental volumes of non-landed private homes and Housing Board flats rose last month, showing as yet no effect from the coronavirus outbreak, according to flash estimates from real estate portal SRX Property yesterday.

Condominium rents rose 0.1 per cent from January and are up 3.3 per cent year on year.

The rise in private rental volume could be due to some tenants returning to Singapore after the Chinese New Year holiday, said ERA Realty's head of research and consultancy Nicholas Mak.

Some tertiary educational institutions start the new school term in February and this month, leading foreign students at these schools to rent their accommodation during the month, he said.

Due to limited supply of private residential units, under normal market conditions, some demand could spill over to HDB rental, supporting the growth of HDB rental rates, he added.

But Mr Mak said the uncertainties arising from the coronavirus outbreak could see the private and public housing rental indices remain largely unchanged in the coming months.

For last month, condominium rents in the core central region (CCR) rose 0.9 per cent month on month; those for the rest of central region (RCR) decreased 0.4 per cent; and rents from the outside central region (OCR) held steady.

Rents in all regions were up year on year, with the CCR rising 5.1 per cent, the RCR up 2.9 per cent and the OCR increasing 2.4 per cent.

Meanwhile, volumes rose 20.6 per cent with an estimated 4,830 units rented during the month.

Year on year, rental volumes climbed 20.3 per cent, 32 per cent higher than the five-year average volume for the month of February.

As for the HDB rental market, rents rose 0.4 per cent from January and 2.4 per cent year on year.

Rents in mature estates and non-mature estates rose 0.5 per cent and 0.4 per cent from January, respectively.

Except for rents of executive flats, all flat types experienced rent increases from January.

Year on year, all flat types saw increases in rents, except those for executive flats which were flat.

HDB rental volumes also rose 11.5 per cent from January and 17.9 per cent year on year.

Volumes were 15.2 per cent higher than the five-year average volume for February.

Four-room flat rentals took up 36.1 per cent of the volume last month, followed by 32 per cent for three-room flats, 25.5 per cent for five-room flats and 6.4 per cent for executive flats.

THE BUSINESS TIMES

• With additional information from The Straits Times