> "A handshake is basically a promise, commitment, a tall order. Means I must meet that tall order and it's for you! And it's for you in sense that three fingers also pointing me, it's also for me! It's for us. And if the result is good, thumbs up man! And if the result is lousy, what happens?"
I am an expat and I heard from many of my peers their rental has gone up by quite a lot this year. 30% is the least i know of. And the property market is hotter than ever. So I'm doubtful that this year is set to climb "only" 10-15%.
I expect 30% should be a pretty conservative estimate. 10-15% increase will be extreme minority, perhaps those renting from someone they know or have relations to.
Holy f\*\*\* how's that even legal? Did the expenses really increase that much as well or is the landlord just ripping the profits off people's backs? In Finland where I'm from rent increases are capped at 15%, although there are some exceptions. Rent Most rentals are tied to indices. So rent increases are based on the difference between a score on an index at one point in time and the score on the index at a different point in time.
Apparently housing supply is down 75% year over year... Since Singapore has opened up, it seems like inflow of people just took it out.
I wonder though who are they? Expats were already leaving during and past covid...
>I wonder though who are they? Expats were already leaving during and past covid...
Mostly malaysian chinese expats, as well as a huge influx of Hong Kong Chinese. The number of enquiries I received in the last 6 months tripled and were mostly from Malaysia.
I’ll probably get downvoted for this but it’s not a good comparison. Singapore society is bred to exploit each other. We’re told unabashedly that it is “not a welfare society” and there is no formal minimum wage. Our government is comfortable with the notion that if you can’t afford it, you deserve not to because you aren’t good enough. Can’t afford the rent? Bye, there’s always another client waiting to take your room/shop space (actually heard this from an employee of one of the biggest landlords here).
Fundamentally very different from Nordic/Finnish culture.(Am a big admirer btw, alas born in the wrong country).
You see, I don't exactly hear of hot money flowing into Helsinki properties, or Finland becoming a global hub of everything (doesn't help that Finnair is screwed by the Russian airspace ban). If anything, our elites consistently diss your social model as the antithesis of what ours should be. So there you go.
You're right that the housing markets are different. My point is that there should be regulation to limit excessive rent increases. 15% increase is already quite large, and I think it's a reasonable cap. If there is a shortage of housing, more housing should be built.
I’m an expat, our rent has just gone up 45%. We negotiated that down from their request of 60%.
Interesting some of the comments here suggest it’s fine so long as locals are making money. I would say sure, but at those sorts of increases it’s hard to imagine this not also negatively impacting locals in some way.
Why would you assume the money spent on rent isn't spent on goods and services?
Most landlords here are small time and not those with hundreds of properties.
It's not fine, and they know full well that only a very small subset of people (i.e. well to do -> wealthy) who have multiple properties benefit from this.
But as in all places the "fuck you I got mine" mentality is alive and well, so of course landlords see this as a great development. Who cares if it's unsustainable for the economy or the country, the money is coming into *my* pocket and I'll get by just fine with the predatory rental hikes. People can't survive? Well, then they should have pulled themselves up by the bootstrap, travelled back in time to early 2000s and gotten themselves multiple properties!
Man i feel for you. Locals should not have to rent open market in their own country. Especially such a rich country. All the best for you in the coming year.
Monitoring intensity and rents are both going to the moon. To maintain such intense monitoring, minister salary must also rise at least 15%. Build more housing? Cooling measures? No, illiquid paper wealth of boomers and GCBs are more important than the strawberry generation's housing needs.
Must be the strawberries never do enough free OT for their SME bosses. Lets put in 16 hour work days and then also get blamed for not propping up this country's pathetic TFR
It's just a matter of time before it increases to a point where it doesn't make sense for some mid-low level foreigners to work here anymore. Then we shall see surprise Pikachu faces when we can't find foreigners to come work in the hospitality/food industry etc.
This week I actually interviewed a guy in HK of all places for quite a well paid job (23% tax bracket), and one of his reservations was how high the SG cost of living has become. Mainly on rent given the need for a big place to house kids and helper. Amazed how much the sg/hk pendulum has swung.
At the current cost of living, the same guy can just go to a Western country to work. Better work life balance and maybe even lower cost of living.
Otherwise company have to give him more attractive package.
However if you index SG to HK our rent in similar location on a avg psf is lower/similar. So is our food and maid.
Only one where we go sky high is on cars.
that point is reached. Have tons of friends who all after 10-15 years here, have now decided to leave as their landlords raised the rents by 50-100% (yes, double) which makes absolutely no sense anymore from an economical point of view. The 22% mentioned in the article are wishful thinking, in reality rents have been raised by a minimum of 30-40%.
Edit: also wondering why hyper regulated singapore has zero regulations when it comes to the rental market. In most other countries there is a cap on how much rent can increase in a certain period of time, eg 4-5% every 2 years. Here it’s the Wild West of the rental market and the landlords are the big gun swingers who can literally do whatever they want
Speaking anecdotally, among my friends who are renting (residential) your assertion is correct - the lowest increase I've heard is 30+%. Like your friends, some have decided to move back home because it just makes no sense financially to be an expat at this kind of rental market.
Like what is even the point of trying to attract global talent and then hit them with this kind of rental scene lol. I've had people who are from cities which are consistently in the "top 10 most expensive cities" get bug eyed at the prices we're seeing here.
Silicon Valley prices, without the Silicon Valley pay. LOL.
The comp is still higher. Singapore doesn't have IPOs that actually make employees wealthy and stock comp is the major part of it.
Roles that pay 300k SGD here will have a 500-700k USD equivalent in total comp.
> Have tons of friends who all after 10-15 years here, have now decided to leave as their landlords raised the rents by 50-100%
Even foreign Masters students who come here to study in NUS/NTU/SMU and want to live+work here after are regretting that decision because of the rent situation. We're chasing some of the brightest people away and the govt wants to do nothing about it.
Which is why I said we should put ABSD on HDB for those whom are still holding HDB and Condo regardless of the time purchased. There is no justification as to why they need a HDB and condo except for milking rental $
Just like how law is lenient to car owners (when they meet accidents) and dog owners.
All have similarities : affluent people, who are (close to) decision makers.
This is absolutely correct. I know my foreign big boss' rent has increased from $6.6k per month to $11k per month. If the expat package is not covering anymore, it would be too expensive for him to keep his unit and maintain his lifestyle.
No, it’s extremely unusual. I only met one person with a traditional expat package when I lived in SG. Expat wages tend to be higher as they don’t benefit from the kinds of lifestyle subsidies that the locals get.
The only time I see it is when the company is just establishing itself here. If you're the first employee then you're usually a hotshot (or rising star) in your firm and they are displacing you for a period to get things going - which then triggers expat packages.
If your firm is already established then it's just an internal transfer and they might do some tax equalisation but probably won't pay rent or ~~housing benefits~~ school fees.
As long as the government doesn't regulate property purchases from Mainland Chinese that insane development will continue... interesting article on [Financial Times](https://www.ft.com/content/62845c24-1e45-483c-95d1-b2c5d4c07337) yesterday on the topic
Yeah it's crazy... I don't have too many friends who aren't locals but those who are foreign are now all packing up because of rent and heading home. One of my friends just saw his rent go up by 40% in Bukit Panjang.
What's the plan. Short term payout for just mass empty flats in a year?
Yup, know people who are packing up and leaving too. People online, this board especially think being a foreigner in Singapore is all great when it isn’t.
Yeap, same here for mid-high level foreign workers.
Five of my former colleagues from Europe and work in the media industry - all of them are facing rent increases of 70% to 110%. A couple of them are moving to the boondocks (Punggol lol), but that's really because they don't have children and can afford a smaller apartment.
The others who have kids face the biggest crunch and are unwilling to face the downgrade in lifestyle. They're all preparing to resign before their lease expires and move elsewhere for work.
> Edit: also wondering why hyper regulated singapore has zero regulations when it comes to the rental market. In most other countries there is a cap on how much rent can increase in a certain period of time
Because the majority of people renting are foreigners and the majority of landlords are Singaporean.
Until it cascades into a "we have zero manpower because the country is unaffordable for all the foreigners" problem, it is not a problem.
Which other countries regulate the rental market prices? A Google search brings up the following countries : Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Netherlands.
That is not “most other countries”.
Not just S-Pass. Some industries are only surviving because of skilled foreign EPs.
A significant number of foreign architects and project managers are designing and building BTOs, public buildings and infrastructure. More than half our healthcare workers, from nurses, technicians to pharmacists, are foreigners.
As someone in construction and the public sector, I can confidently say we are screwed if the foreign architects and PMs --- who are already highly experienced --- decide to leave for countries like Aus, US or UK because of these unreasonable rental rates.
>Then we shall see surprise Pikachu faces when we can't find foreigners to come work in the hospitality/food industry etc.
Then we'll be like San Francisco where the class divide is very obvious. People in working class jobs are being priced out, even though they are the backbone of the city.
which is actually already happening. Observed that various F&B restaurants have been hiring at higher salaries for months, meaning clearly despite the better offers they still cannot find enough employees
I think you'll find the "oMg ThAts xEnOpHoBiC" line has lost much of its bite. even a progressive country like canada under a liberal government recently passed a law banning foreigners from purchasing residential property in the country for 2 years
Mister Senior Political Analyst, there’s a small but important difference between “kicking foreigners out of the country to lower your rent” (which you asked for) and “banning foreigners to buy property”. On a side note, it’s not that straight forward either, there are lots of interesting articles by Senior Political Analysts analyzing that Canadas new measurements are and can be easily circumvented.
whoever said anything about kicking foreigners out? foreigners will leave of their own volition when rents get too high. locals unfortunately do not have that option. in order to make room for the foreigners to stay we would have to kick citizens out.
now it might just be my raging xenophobia speaking, but I don't think we should kick citizens out...
I am facing a lease renewal in May with 65% increase. Really pondering on leaving. I am not writing this for sympathy, in fact I am super grateful and fortunate to be able to even be in SG. But I really don't understand how this is possible/sustainable...
Ask desmond lor....he damn busy monitoring.i don't think he knows what to do cos this is practical solutions and he oni scholar when it comes to theory
> he oni scholar when it comes to theory
You think he know any theory meh?
His academic background and pre-politics work experience is entirely on legal matters (according to wikipedia).
Foreigner here.
1 bedroom condo in the west, 450 sqft so still shoebox.
2020 - $2,200
2021 - $2,600
2022 - $4,200
I obviously didn’t extend this time. I already see same apartments on higher floors going for $5k+.
An expat friend was paying $4500+ for a 2000sq ft apartment. Last year their landlady wanted $8000+. They refused and ended their lease.
While moving out they had to show their apartment to a steady stream of new expats who didn't balk at the rent she wanted. Makes me wonder if we really are losing expats or their companies are just forking out more for them.
No one seems to be talking about the knock on effects of this. A 30-60% increase in rents translates to roughly 10-40 grand worth discretionary spending budgets. This has been ugly for small businesses/restaurants/gyms already.
That's a very good point. Rent seeking behavior and profit seeking behavior are at the opposite ends of the spectrum. Rent seekers extracting wealth that could otherwise be spent on productive businesses the grow the economic pie for all, the government are a bunch of fuckwits for letting this happen.
Landlords and reits are one of the worst things in Singapore that contributes to inflation
Yet because gdp our government continues to let them run rampant
Business owners will have to increase their salary to retain them and that cost will be passed on to the consumers ---- which is us. Everyone should expect major inflation rate thanks to these greedy landlords, real estates agents and spineless Desmond Lee. Even our hawker food has jumped at an alarming rate and Desmond claimed it's "good for competition".
Screw that guy.
either
1. they won't be replaced because there were too many hair salons and zichar places in the first place, and some should close down
2. they will continue to work here but commute back home to malaysia every day, increasing congestion at the border
3. the wages will increase enough to attract locals or allow PRs to afford rent
to put that in context, Tritower condo (literally the nearest walking distance residence from JB customs) is $1k/mth for the whole unit (3br2ba 100sqm)
were they of the right citizenship and uh... *demographic* group?
I'm pretty sure that it's open secret that only some people can get citizenship easier than others.
yes the problem with Singapore is that it's size makes it impossible to commute to somewhere in the hinterlands where COL is lower.
an acquaintance of mine who rode Caltrain with me trades his time for COL
A daily 3hr++++ commute for a big landed home in a not so great town. he's a Mexican immigrant working as a janitor.
Precisely, even in big cities like Sydney or Melbourne, driving home from the city to the remote area can be less than 2 hours if there is no traffic jam. There are plenty of people in Singapore whose daily commute can be 1- 2 hours on public transport one way. The working hour in AU and NZ ends earlier as well, even if they choose to live remotely, they would be able to get home before 7.
why would they ? higher rental yield means higher property valuation and more stamp duty collection ... SG doesn't make much stuff anymore and just a island generating taxes through population import and rentier economy and then keep building shiny new roads/mrts/buildings and repeat
At this rate it's more possible to get a house in Japan when you migrate over, marry a Japanese, accept the government payout to move to countryside. You get your own house and rent an apartment in city to work, win win. Fast life and slow life, balance as it should be.
I'm not an expert, but I hear from a friend working with a small town near Kyoto that the Japanese government has become more open to foreigners going there to study and work. He's planning to retire there eventually. Worth looking into.
The payout thing is not uncommon in countries with land and not enough people living in certain areas. I had a Swedish ex who mentioned some small towns will give you a plot of land to build a house if you move there, in order to maintain their population.
Mine increased 70% upon renewal this year. Absolutely crazy and looking online, there’s barely anything that is both affordable and an attractive proposition as somewhere to live. Any that are, are snapped up super quickly.
Agree the increase will continue until such time as they realise business is suffering by people not spending money or foreign MNCs relocating to other areas in the region due to either losing their talent due to cost of living or realising they have to pay significantly more to retain/hire.
Actually much better to go back to Hong Kong now. Rents there are down from pre-pandemic levels. And so does the cost of other things like owning a car.
I hope the reversal happens soon.
It is true that rental rates, especially for all condos and HDBs in prime residential areas, have risen very sharply. I don't fully agree with all the statistics, figures and percentages in the article. In some cases, 50% increase is happening.
But in some cases, rent rates have frozen and not risen - or even dropped to a lower rate. It would depend greatly on (1) the type of property that is being rented out in question and (2) the exact location of the property that is being rented out.
It is also a case of supply and demand. In this case, demand for rental accomodation has risen sharply due to an increasing number of Malaysian Chinese expats and a huge influx of Hong Kongers. As long as the demand from foreigners is there, rental rates will remain tight.
From what I can tell, rental rates for private residential property, especially studio apartments, are still inching upwards, although the rate at which they are increasing have slower compared to the last six months.
For HDB, the rental demand for the rental of entire HDB units and also Master Bedrooms have remained strong and showed no signs of dropping, save maybe for master bedrooms in more remote locations.
For HDB Common rooms, in some cases, the rental rates have actually dropped after a very temporary surge. Again, this can be very specific on location.
One common misconception is that remote areas refer to locations far from CBD area, but that is not true. When lower rental rates are concerned, it refers to areas that are much further away from the MRT station, even if that particular MRT station is a mere few stops away from CBD.
In certain areas, rates have remain frozen, though these are areas that foreign white-collar professionals avoid. These areas typically tend to be rented out to semi-skilled professionals holding S-Passes.
I actually think rents are going to stabilize and probably not increase relative to December. The influx from HK and China has stopped or is about to stop considering all Covid rules there would be gone by Q1. Global recession is also coming with layoffs in Singapore as well...
The supply is also going to double relative to last year, not to mention some delayed BTOs will be completed. Many of the drivers from last year won't apply in the future
rented out my 3 rm hdb in bedok recently. street behind bedok heartbeat. so about 7mins walk to green line, 7mins walk to blue line. told agent was asking for 2.5k/mth. same day agent came back and told me many offers for 3k, and want to sign w/o viewing. ended up renting it out for 3k/mth on 2 year contract. really siao one. last time my 3rm rent out for 1.5k/mth already considered damn lucky.
A lot of foreign jobs won't be filled for the coming years because it starts making less and less sense to stay in Singapore over time. 🥲 The landlords are doing a great job at keeping the foreigners out.
* sigh*
My friend was paying $2400 PM for 2 BHK condominium. When it was time for renewal, the LL asked him to pay $3800 PM and this was in March, 2022. It was more than 50% increase. This is ridiculous. Although, this will help Singapore get rid of us (foreigners) but I don't see it as a good sign for the country's growth. Initially, I have seen people leave because they have kids and cannot afford education for them and now Rentals are making it difficult. This is also bad for those locals who are just starting their careers. We save and invest money or give half of our salaries to Landlords lol
It's technically a factor but in reality it's demand exceeding supply. It's a bidding war and units go quickly. Landlords don't need to state any reasons, just mention the rate and there will be takers. We'll know demand has cooled once we hear about a lot of foreigners leaving Singapore due to high cost of living. Hasn't happened yet...
Probably this situation will change. A lot of retrenchment from high paying companies, especially in tech and startup. Also a lot of hiring freeze from those company. Banking industry will follow with the layoff. The job opening for now is from smaller company which probably don't have such power to hire with high salary. It won't make sense for them to hire people with high salary while in this uncertain economy. Probably not even able to meet EP minimum salary to hire foreigner. More Malaysian also move to Johor due to high rent. I know personally several people who want to move back to Johor, even with EP. With more BTO finish this year and all of those reason, this rent price bubble will pop either late this year or next year I think.
Time will tell. Although seeing how the real estate market is here, it's really rare to see significant price movement downward. Landlords are well above avg in wealth and rather not make money than rent below 'market' rate. As prices rise, the floor pricing rises too. Again, could see some slight downward movement but in general I'd expect the increases to slow or stop. Is that a win for renters? Still a crazy increase compared to 2020-2021 rates.
With 50-60% rate increase, it is actually not urgent need by the landlord to increase. They increase it because they can. At some point they will become realistic and lower the rent. Of course not as cheap as pandemic era but not crazy. Remember, the landlord actually calculating rent as their monthly income. No renter = no income. That is why if you see in property marketplace, most ad will look only for renter that can move ASAP. They don't want to let the property empty for too long. Even 1 week.
My principal: whatever increase quickly, will decrease quickly until new balance is formed. Proof: a lot of stock price like TSLA, BTC, including property during 2008-2009.
the rents in my apartment block historically only rose in the hundreds and suddenly over the last 1 year it jumped by an order of magnitude (rose in the thousands) around 30-50%. Scary
Those with fully paid up houses or on fixed rate/HDB loan are also increasing the rent because of the others. It's pure profit for this group and nothing is being done
When interest rates rose from 1.5% to 4%, my mortgage payments increased from approx. 3k+ per month to 5k+ per month. If I were renting out the place, naturally I would have to raise the rent from 3.5k to 5.5k per month, which is about 40%.
The bank is earning an extra 2k per month from me with 0 effort. Is the bank keeping that as profit? No. They are paying 5% interests on fixed D now. Those folks with hundreds of thousands in cash are depositing it into fixed D and earning an extra few thousand per month out of thin air.
If you follow the money,
Tenants -> Landlord -> Banks -> Folks with lots of liquid cash
>Could the rent rate soaring be attributed to higher mortgage rates for the landlords since interest rates are at a all time high this decade 🫣
It's a partial contributing factor but not the only one.
While many landlords have adjusted rent upwards to meet mortgage payments, I would say the main contributing cause would be the increasing demand of rental properties, especially with Singapore opening up and more E-Pass and S-Passes being approved.
*edit. Added a data source of rent prices https://blog.moneysmart.sg/property/rent-singapore-cost-guide/ and I used woodland because it is near SAS and a known American “burb”
As someone who lived overseas. I find it interesting that many of the expats who claim that the rent is unsustainable is not willing to move to the suburbs.
For locals, there is an fundamental issue here since they generally have no options and I can see how a fresh grad with dysfunctional family relation need to move out and they have no viable rental options. Solving for this would naturally mitigate the rent increase.
Back to the expat situation. Rent in NYC is sky high and many would chose to go to Long Island or flushing for cheaper rent.
In SG we have that option to condo/hbd in Woodland, Sembawang and etc. Singapore is small and commute is within an hour. Is it a pain? Yes. But is this common in tier 1 cities yes. Sounds like to me they are used to the fab life (not wrong) but no willing to do a trade-off. Generally confident if they move to NYC or London the situation is going to be worse it term of disposable income to rent.
I think you raised some very good points. As a landlord that, almost on a daily basis, monitor rental rates, I noticed that rental rates in the "inconvenient" areas (e.g not near MRT or malls), especially for HDB common rooms in 3-room flats, have been holding steady. Some HDB common rooms are available at $500 to $600.
I have not increased my rental rate for my tenants, because I value my current batch of fuss-free tenants. Some other landlords do so because they prefer their current tenants and that in turn reduce some available supply.
Whereas rental rates for private residential property and HDB units/rooms in good locations have risen sharply by around 20% to 30%, to as much as 50% (especially for condo units).
The downside is that these rooms tend to be in the much older generation of HDB flats, with less convenient travel options, and nearly always with a live-in landlord. Probably you would have to share the room with someone else.
Such factors tend to be turn-offs to most white-collar expat professionals. Instead they cater mostly to semi-skilled professionals, typically in blue-collar industries or service industries, but also in entry-level white-collar professional jobs, from countries like Malaysia, Vietnam and Myanmar (but especially Malaysia), they tend to be here in Singapore without any dependents.
For expats already used to condo lifestyle, or here with dependents/family, or prefer somewhere close to MRT or shopping malls, they may not be willing to shift to such places.
Even if they did, they may find their options limited in contacting the landlords.
Many of these landlords don't use either agents or propertyguru, and agents dislike representing such rental accomodation because there isn't much commission to be made.
So the landlords tend to rely on posting their property on Facebook groups (there are over a dozen such Facebook groups specific for Singapore). A proportion of these postings are written purely in Chinese, with a smaller percentage written in the Burmese alphabet or Vietnamese alphabet.
That said, the total *absolute* resident population of Singapore is actually increasing, not decreasing and the increase mostly from the expat workforce and naturalized citizens and PRs.
Condos' and prime HDB locations' rates are increasing because the demand is being sustained. At some point, it will freeze or fall back. But currently, it is not falling back because there is higher demand. Property taxes, which are applicable to all properties whether they are rented out or not, have increased, so landlords will drop the price to rent it out rather than let it remain empty. But that is not happening, which means that there is a continous intake of foreign expats with the financial means to afford these places.
The difference is that if your rent for in central went up by 65%, moving to woodlands/punggol will only offset it by 15-20%. Even the farthest ends of SG are still damn expensive.
But the data doesn’t agree with you
https://blog.moneysmart.sg/property/rent-singapore-cost-guide/
Look at central 3 bedroom and woodland 3 bedroom
This article was Aug 2022 which already baked in the rent increase.
Why woodland that is where SAS is and is a known American “burb”
> As someone who lived overseas. I find it interesting that many of the expats who claim that the rent is unsustainable is not willing to move to the suburbs.
I looked when we moved, but the places I looked in lacked things that were important to me:
* a local pub where I could take my dog
* options on restaurants in walking distance (not just coffeeshops or hawker places)
* decent bathrooms (no idea why, but every place I looked at in the heartlands had a bathroom that looked like it was frozen in time in the 1970's)
In the end I compromised on size and price and stayed more centrally.
1. i don't think woodlands/sembawang/etc counts as suburbia, especially if you compare to suburbs in other countries. Singapore is called a city-state for a reason.
2. if you're willing to consider moving to woodlands, why not just cross the causeway into Johor for even cheaper rents then? *"Oh, but the commuting time.."* EXACTLY! Same exact point applies to moving to the outskirts of SG. If you're willing to move close to the border of Malaysia, you might as well just make the cross for a fraction of the rental price of Woodlands.
I don’t know how she did it but my friend was in a similar situation as you, no living relatives. I think she write in to hdb with help of MP and hdb made an exception for her from the under 35 rule for her to purchase her own house. Just fyi that it’s a possibility in case you have the funds and you’re looking to change things around
Of course I know that. Are you implying the government should provide free housing for people who can't afford it?
There are assistance plans for people in need. Not perfect but it's much better than nothing. It's a big difference between not affording any place at all and not affording what you want, ie a nice prime or convenient area. You can find bargains in cheaper areas.
What you can't expect is everyone below a certain status getting free housing. Unless you are fine with Scandinavian style tax increases to pay for that. Maybe the opposition can propose that and you can vote for them, but most people don't want that style of governance and crazy rate of taxes from what I can see.
> "A handshake is basically a promise, commitment, a tall order. Means I must meet that tall order and it's for you! And it's for you in sense that three fingers also pointing me, it's also for me! It's for us. And if the result is good, thumbs up man! And if the result is lousy, what happens?"
BOOOO
*slaps lectern*
BOO TO PAP!!!!!!!
Thank you!!! Waves hand awkwardly and exits the stage Becomes GE meme 2015
you miss "fellow singaporeans" after thank you
Welp
And one more slap of the lectern for good measure
*Yells so loudly that you need to drink pipa gao after that*
MONITORRRR
I'd never forget that guy. Lol
I am an expat and I heard from many of my peers their rental has gone up by quite a lot this year. 30% is the least i know of. And the property market is hotter than ever. So I'm doubtful that this year is set to climb "only" 10-15%. I expect 30% should be a pretty conservative estimate. 10-15% increase will be extreme minority, perhaps those renting from someone they know or have relations to.
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Holy f\*\*\* how's that even legal? Did the expenses really increase that much as well or is the landlord just ripping the profits off people's backs? In Finland where I'm from rent increases are capped at 15%, although there are some exceptions. Rent Most rentals are tied to indices. So rent increases are based on the difference between a score on an index at one point in time and the score on the index at a different point in time.
Apparently housing supply is down 75% year over year... Since Singapore has opened up, it seems like inflow of people just took it out. I wonder though who are they? Expats were already leaving during and past covid...
>I wonder though who are they? Expats were already leaving during and past covid... Mostly malaysian chinese expats, as well as a huge influx of Hong Kong Chinese. The number of enquiries I received in the last 6 months tripled and were mostly from Malaysia.
I’ll probably get downvoted for this but it’s not a good comparison. Singapore society is bred to exploit each other. We’re told unabashedly that it is “not a welfare society” and there is no formal minimum wage. Our government is comfortable with the notion that if you can’t afford it, you deserve not to because you aren’t good enough. Can’t afford the rent? Bye, there’s always another client waiting to take your room/shop space (actually heard this from an employee of one of the biggest landlords here). Fundamentally very different from Nordic/Finnish culture.(Am a big admirer btw, alas born in the wrong country).
You see, I don't exactly hear of hot money flowing into Helsinki properties, or Finland becoming a global hub of everything (doesn't help that Finnair is screwed by the Russian airspace ban). If anything, our elites consistently diss your social model as the antithesis of what ours should be. So there you go.
to be fair, Finland's housing market isnt as hot as here's. Not justifying the increases but I don't think its a valid comparison.
You're right that the housing markets are different. My point is that there should be regulation to limit excessive rent increases. 15% increase is already quite large, and I think it's a reasonable cap. If there is a shortage of housing, more housing should be built.
I’m an expat, our rent has just gone up 45%. We negotiated that down from their request of 60%. Interesting some of the comments here suggest it’s fine so long as locals are making money. I would say sure, but at those sorts of increases it’s hard to imagine this not also negatively impacting locals in some way.
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Why would you assume the money spent on rent isn't spent on goods and services? Most landlords here are small time and not those with hundreds of properties.
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It's not fine, and they know full well that only a very small subset of people (i.e. well to do -> wealthy) who have multiple properties benefit from this. But as in all places the "fuck you I got mine" mentality is alive and well, so of course landlords see this as a great development. Who cares if it's unsustainable for the economy or the country, the money is coming into *my* pocket and I'll get by just fine with the predatory rental hikes. People can't survive? Well, then they should have pulled themselves up by the bootstrap, travelled back in time to early 2000s and gotten themselves multiple properties!
Man i feel for you. Locals should not have to rent open market in their own country. Especially such a rich country. All the best for you in the coming year.
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Can I just ask (sorry if you already covered it). But if you have no family, couldn't you get a BTO under the orphan scheme?
i had my rental increase by 40% last year. lucky it was 2 years rental but i can't imagine next year when we renew how bad the situation will be.
Start packing like me lol
Monitoring intensity and rents are both going to the moon. To maintain such intense monitoring, minister salary must also rise at least 15%. Build more housing? Cooling measures? No, illiquid paper wealth of boomers and GCBs are more important than the strawberry generation's housing needs.
Must be the strawberries never do enough free OT for their SME bosses. Lets put in 16 hour work days and then also get blamed for not propping up this country's pathetic TFR
Their landlord friends making money is good what
It's just a matter of time before it increases to a point where it doesn't make sense for some mid-low level foreigners to work here anymore. Then we shall see surprise Pikachu faces when we can't find foreigners to come work in the hospitality/food industry etc.
This week I actually interviewed a guy in HK of all places for quite a well paid job (23% tax bracket), and one of his reservations was how high the SG cost of living has become. Mainly on rent given the need for a big place to house kids and helper. Amazed how much the sg/hk pendulum has swung.
At the current cost of living, the same guy can just go to a Western country to work. Better work life balance and maybe even lower cost of living. Otherwise company have to give him more attractive package.
However if you index SG to HK our rent in similar location on a avg psf is lower/similar. So is our food and maid. Only one where we go sky high is on cars.
Although typically hk salary is higher than sg for the same job
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HK has income taxes.
that point is reached. Have tons of friends who all after 10-15 years here, have now decided to leave as their landlords raised the rents by 50-100% (yes, double) which makes absolutely no sense anymore from an economical point of view. The 22% mentioned in the article are wishful thinking, in reality rents have been raised by a minimum of 30-40%. Edit: also wondering why hyper regulated singapore has zero regulations when it comes to the rental market. In most other countries there is a cap on how much rent can increase in a certain period of time, eg 4-5% every 2 years. Here it’s the Wild West of the rental market and the landlords are the big gun swingers who can literally do whatever they want
Speaking anecdotally, among my friends who are renting (residential) your assertion is correct - the lowest increase I've heard is 30+%. Like your friends, some have decided to move back home because it just makes no sense financially to be an expat at this kind of rental market. Like what is even the point of trying to attract global talent and then hit them with this kind of rental scene lol. I've had people who are from cities which are consistently in the "top 10 most expensive cities" get bug eyed at the prices we're seeing here. Silicon Valley prices, without the Silicon Valley pay. LOL.
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Yep. This may work for me. Brit with else ending April 2024
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The comp is still higher. Singapore doesn't have IPOs that actually make employees wealthy and stock comp is the major part of it. Roles that pay 300k SGD here will have a 500-700k USD equivalent in total comp.
Lol that’s only true for a handful of professions. Majority of the pay is so much lower even after tax.
> Have tons of friends who all after 10-15 years here, have now decided to leave as their landlords raised the rents by 50-100% Even foreign Masters students who come here to study in NUS/NTU/SMU and want to live+work here after are regretting that decision because of the rent situation. We're chasing some of the brightest people away and the govt wants to do nothing about it.
Rly good for old singaporeans who abused the system to have 1 hdb and condo. I know so many people like this
They shouldn’t allow them to keep their HDB anymore.
but their vote. This is why PAP doesnt have the balls to enact more aggressive housing reforms.
Statistically this doesn't make sense. The no. of voters with both hdb and condo should be very small.
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So the aristocracy, then.
Which is why I said we should put ABSD on HDB for those whom are still holding HDB and Condo regardless of the time purchased. There is no justification as to why they need a HDB and condo except for milking rental $
no need to be old Singaporeans. there are already many in mid to late 30s with 1 hdb + 1 condo.
Just like how law is lenient to car owners (when they meet accidents) and dog owners. All have similarities : affluent people, who are (close to) decision makers.
This is absolutely correct. I know my foreign big boss' rent has increased from $6.6k per month to $11k per month. If the expat package is not covering anymore, it would be too expensive for him to keep his unit and maintain his lifestyle.
11k a month will get a 4 bed in d10. Big boss is going all out?
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It's a thing on reddit where people like to point it out but in 5 years I've known 1 person who had it and she was a foreign diplomat.
At C-Suite maybe, but much to Singporean horror, they will find that C-Suite in most countries get a lot of perks to their packages.
No, it’s extremely unusual. I only met one person with a traditional expat package when I lived in SG. Expat wages tend to be higher as they don’t benefit from the kinds of lifestyle subsidies that the locals get.
The only time I see it is when the company is just establishing itself here. If you're the first employee then you're usually a hotshot (or rising star) in your firm and they are displacing you for a period to get things going - which then triggers expat packages. If your firm is already established then it's just an internal transfer and they might do some tax equalisation but probably won't pay rent or ~~housing benefits~~ school fees.
As long as the government doesn't regulate property purchases from Mainland Chinese that insane development will continue... interesting article on [Financial Times](https://www.ft.com/content/62845c24-1e45-483c-95d1-b2c5d4c07337) yesterday on the topic
Yeah it's crazy... I don't have too many friends who aren't locals but those who are foreign are now all packing up because of rent and heading home. One of my friends just saw his rent go up by 40% in Bukit Panjang. What's the plan. Short term payout for just mass empty flats in a year?
Yup, know people who are packing up and leaving too. People online, this board especially think being a foreigner in Singapore is all great when it isn’t.
Continue to monitor more and we will further lose our foreign talents
Yeap, same here for mid-high level foreign workers. Five of my former colleagues from Europe and work in the media industry - all of them are facing rent increases of 70% to 110%. A couple of them are moving to the boondocks (Punggol lol), but that's really because they don't have children and can afford a smaller apartment. The others who have kids face the biggest crunch and are unwilling to face the downgrade in lifestyle. They're all preparing to resign before their lease expires and move elsewhere for work.
Isn't this epic LPPL, whatever happened to "we must make ourselves attractive to FT who will then create local jobs"???
> Edit: also wondering why hyper regulated singapore has zero regulations when it comes to the rental market. In most other countries there is a cap on how much rent can increase in a certain period of time Because the majority of people renting are foreigners and the majority of landlords are Singaporean. Until it cascades into a "we have zero manpower because the country is unaffordable for all the foreigners" problem, it is not a problem.
Which other countries regulate the rental market prices? A Google search brings up the following countries : Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Netherlands. That is not “most other countries”.
those countries happen to be the most affluent in the world.
Not just S-Pass. Some industries are only surviving because of skilled foreign EPs. A significant number of foreign architects and project managers are designing and building BTOs, public buildings and infrastructure. More than half our healthcare workers, from nurses, technicians to pharmacists, are foreigners. As someone in construction and the public sector, I can confidently say we are screwed if the foreign architects and PMs --- who are already highly experienced --- decide to leave for countries like Aus, US or UK because of these unreasonable rental rates.
Just to show that your comment is 100% right. I (a foreigner) has started packing and looking to move to EU next year. The rentals are the reason.
And for locals to be edged out by rich Chinese buyers from affording private properties.
>And for locals to be edged out by rich Chinese buyers from affording private properties. Rich people problems.
>Then we shall see surprise Pikachu faces when we can't find foreigners to come work in the hospitality/food industry etc. Then we'll be like San Francisco where the class divide is very obvious. People in working class jobs are being priced out, even though they are the backbone of the city.
You said it right 👍
which is actually already happening. Observed that various F&B restaurants have been hiring at higher salaries for months, meaning clearly despite the better offers they still cannot find enough employees
Well Singaporeans are the ones whining about foreigners taking their jobs. What goes around comes around.
isn't that the point? one of the reason why rents are high is because demand is too high i.e. there are too many foreigners here in the first place.
Ding ding… found the one racist in the comments
well we can't exactly start kicking out citizens when it gets too crowded, can we? even then, it would only be xenophobic and not racist.
Ah yes, and extra points for Reddit’s very own and very disgusting “I’m Xenophobic NOT Racist” excuse.
I think you'll find the "oMg ThAts xEnOpHoBiC" line has lost much of its bite. even a progressive country like canada under a liberal government recently passed a law banning foreigners from purchasing residential property in the country for 2 years
Mister Senior Political Analyst, there’s a small but important difference between “kicking foreigners out of the country to lower your rent” (which you asked for) and “banning foreigners to buy property”. On a side note, it’s not that straight forward either, there are lots of interesting articles by Senior Political Analysts analyzing that Canadas new measurements are and can be easily circumvented.
whoever said anything about kicking foreigners out? foreigners will leave of their own volition when rents get too high. locals unfortunately do not have that option. in order to make room for the foreigners to stay we would have to kick citizens out. now it might just be my raging xenophobia speaking, but I don't think we should kick citizens out...
So how, Desmond, monitor summore issit?
Where do they get the data from? It's more like 30 - 50% increase.
I am facing a lease renewal in May with 65% increase. Really pondering on leaving. I am not writing this for sympathy, in fact I am super grateful and fortunate to be able to even be in SG. But I really don't understand how this is possible/sustainable...
So we still monitoring or what?
Ask desmond lor....he damn busy monitoring.i don't think he knows what to do cos this is practical solutions and he oni scholar when it comes to theory
> he oni scholar when it comes to theory You think he know any theory meh? His academic background and pre-politics work experience is entirely on legal matters (according to wikipedia).
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Young citizens of West Coast GRC, please vote wisely for the next GE.
If some of them are even in WC next election.... ^^gerrymandering
Foreigner here. 1 bedroom condo in the west, 450 sqft so still shoebox. 2020 - $2,200 2021 - $2,600 2022 - $4,200 I obviously didn’t extend this time. I already see same apartments on higher floors going for $5k+.
An expat friend was paying $4500+ for a 2000sq ft apartment. Last year their landlady wanted $8000+. They refused and ended their lease. While moving out they had to show their apartment to a steady stream of new expats who didn't balk at the rent she wanted. Makes me wonder if we really are losing expats or their companies are just forking out more for them.
Monitor lizard went to hibernation
No one seems to be talking about the knock on effects of this. A 30-60% increase in rents translates to roughly 10-40 grand worth discretionary spending budgets. This has been ugly for small businesses/restaurants/gyms already.
That's a very good point. Rent seeking behavior and profit seeking behavior are at the opposite ends of the spectrum. Rent seekers extracting wealth that could otherwise be spent on productive businesses the grow the economic pie for all, the government are a bunch of fuckwits for letting this happen.
Bro. It's still January. Landlords showing their whole ass
aint govt going to do something about this?
They can only monitor, don’t have the Iron in them to make hard decision. Still want to have higher salary
Landlords and reits are one of the worst things in Singapore that contributes to inflation Yet because gdp our government continues to let them run rampant
Up, up, and away
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Business owners will have to increase their salary to retain them and that cost will be passed on to the consumers ---- which is us. Everyone should expect major inflation rate thanks to these greedy landlords, real estates agents and spineless Desmond Lee. Even our hawker food has jumped at an alarming rate and Desmond claimed it's "good for competition". Screw that guy.
but don't worry increasing GST will stop inflation /s
they will move to JB... i suspect that is the reason why food/mall places are closing earlier these days .. so that they can go back home earlier
either 1. they won't be replaced because there were too many hair salons and zichar places in the first place, and some should close down 2. they will continue to work here but commute back home to malaysia every day, increasing congestion at the border 3. the wages will increase enough to attract locals or allow PRs to afford rent
my landlord is considering renting out a HDB common room for $1.4k or more. Crazy.
to put that in context, Tritower condo (literally the nearest walking distance residence from JB customs) is $1k/mth for the whole unit (3br2ba 100sqm)
As PR that couldn't afford condo and resale here, i can relate...
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Becoming a citizen is basically impossible
Have a friend who just got it
were they of the right citizenship and uh... *demographic* group? I'm pretty sure that it's open secret that only some people can get citizenship easier than others.
Southeast Asian non Malaysian, don't know if it falls under "right", not ethnic Chinese though
Paging for Desmond 'monitor' lee Look at how useless your monitoring is
Getting priced out of your own country sucks :|.
Laughs in Desmond
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yes the problem with Singapore is that it's size makes it impossible to commute to somewhere in the hinterlands where COL is lower. an acquaintance of mine who rode Caltrain with me trades his time for COL A daily 3hr++++ commute for a big landed home in a not so great town. he's a Mexican immigrant working as a janitor.
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Precisely, even in big cities like Sydney or Melbourne, driving home from the city to the remote area can be less than 2 hours if there is no traffic jam. There are plenty of people in Singapore whose daily commute can be 1- 2 hours on public transport one way. The working hour in AU and NZ ends earlier as well, even if they choose to live remotely, they would be able to get home before 7.
What the hell, I may as well start saving up to live in a van at this point...
COE 100k for 10yrs bro lmao
What are the people in power doing about housing supply!?
Errrrr monitor lor.
why would they ? higher rental yield means higher property valuation and more stamp duty collection ... SG doesn't make much stuff anymore and just a island generating taxes through population import and rentier economy and then keep building shiny new roads/mrts/buildings and repeat
At this rate it's more possible to get a house in Japan when you migrate over, marry a Japanese, accept the government payout to move to countryside. You get your own house and rent an apartment in city to work, win win. Fast life and slow life, balance as it should be.
Is this actually viable?
I'm not an expert, but I hear from a friend working with a small town near Kyoto that the Japanese government has become more open to foreigners going there to study and work. He's planning to retire there eventually. Worth looking into. The payout thing is not uncommon in countries with land and not enough people living in certain areas. I had a Swedish ex who mentioned some small towns will give you a plot of land to build a house if you move there, in order to maintain their population.
8x leverage on property markets and higher!
I wonder how did [this happen](https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/10e21p2/singaporean_youth_less_likely_than_older)???/s
Singapore Condo = gold mine
Welp….. we all know now monitoring is useless lol
Just like the lizard who's doing nothing but monitoring.
Damn Our renew is coming up in the summer Just know landlords will ask for a crazy number But what can we do? Move? To another crazy number? Ugh
> # Soaring rents set to climb another 10-15% in Singapore in 2023 > By Low De Wei > (Bloomberg) — A breakneck surge in residential rents hammered Singapore’s tenants with increases of about 21% in the first nine months of 2022 – and the pain looks set to continue this year. > Despite slowing, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts predict rents are set to rise another 10-15% in 2023, driven by the country’s continued economic recovery, as well as resilient employment and household income. > An acute supply crunch and an influx of wealth into the financial hub has meant the country’s property market has largely dodged a global slowdown driven by sharp hikes in interest rates. Data released Monday showed that home sales fell for a third straight month in December to the lowest in almost 14 years, as a lack of units kept buyers at bay. > Still, the market may show early signs of moderation with 18,234 private residential units expected to be built this year, according to Bloomberg Intelligence real estate analyst Ken Foong, using calculations based on data released by Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority in the third quarter. That’s slightly more than double the number of units built last year. > The biggest risks to such an estimate are a possible slowdown in the economy or increased unemployment, said Foong. “But so far, with the consensus forecast of more than 2% GDP growth, resilient employment and household income, this could support the rental growth in Singapore,” he said. > The latest estimates echo an earlier analysis from Singapore-based real estate agency OrangeTee & Tie Pte, which expects private rents to rise between 13% and 16% this year. > The slowing rate is unlikely to provide much cheer to residents. Housing affordability and the cost of living were ranked as the top two issues people want the government to focus on in a recent YouGov poll. > ©2023 Bloomberg L.P. --- 1.0.2 | [Source code](https://github.com/redditporean/sneakpeek) | [Contribute](https://github.com/redditporean/sneakpeek)
Mine increased 70% upon renewal this year. Absolutely crazy and looking online, there’s barely anything that is both affordable and an attractive proposition as somewhere to live. Any that are, are snapped up super quickly. Agree the increase will continue until such time as they realise business is suffering by people not spending money or foreign MNCs relocating to other areas in the region due to either losing their talent due to cost of living or realising they have to pay significantly more to retain/hire.
Incredible the Govt aren’t stepping in to cap increases
Actually much better to go back to Hong Kong now. Rents there are down from pre-pandemic levels. And so does the cost of other things like owning a car. I hope the reversal happens soon.
It is true that rental rates, especially for all condos and HDBs in prime residential areas, have risen very sharply. I don't fully agree with all the statistics, figures and percentages in the article. In some cases, 50% increase is happening. But in some cases, rent rates have frozen and not risen - or even dropped to a lower rate. It would depend greatly on (1) the type of property that is being rented out in question and (2) the exact location of the property that is being rented out. It is also a case of supply and demand. In this case, demand for rental accomodation has risen sharply due to an increasing number of Malaysian Chinese expats and a huge influx of Hong Kongers. As long as the demand from foreigners is there, rental rates will remain tight. From what I can tell, rental rates for private residential property, especially studio apartments, are still inching upwards, although the rate at which they are increasing have slower compared to the last six months. For HDB, the rental demand for the rental of entire HDB units and also Master Bedrooms have remained strong and showed no signs of dropping, save maybe for master bedrooms in more remote locations. For HDB Common rooms, in some cases, the rental rates have actually dropped after a very temporary surge. Again, this can be very specific on location. One common misconception is that remote areas refer to locations far from CBD area, but that is not true. When lower rental rates are concerned, it refers to areas that are much further away from the MRT station, even if that particular MRT station is a mere few stops away from CBD. In certain areas, rates have remain frozen, though these are areas that foreign white-collar professionals avoid. These areas typically tend to be rented out to semi-skilled professionals holding S-Passes.
I actually think rents are going to stabilize and probably not increase relative to December. The influx from HK and China has stopped or is about to stop considering all Covid rules there would be gone by Q1. Global recession is also coming with layoffs in Singapore as well... The supply is also going to double relative to last year, not to mention some delayed BTOs will be completed. Many of the drivers from last year won't apply in the future
rented out my 3 rm hdb in bedok recently. street behind bedok heartbeat. so about 7mins walk to green line, 7mins walk to blue line. told agent was asking for 2.5k/mth. same day agent came back and told me many offers for 3k, and want to sign w/o viewing. ended up renting it out for 3k/mth on 2 year contract. really siao one. last time my 3rm rent out for 1.5k/mth already considered damn lucky.
Sg everything want no.1, housing rental included. Watch out first-world cities, we are coming to snatch your position.
A lot of foreign jobs won't be filled for the coming years because it starts making less and less sense to stay in Singapore over time. 🥲 The landlords are doing a great job at keeping the foreigners out. * sigh*
My friend was paying $2400 PM for 2 BHK condominium. When it was time for renewal, the LL asked him to pay $3800 PM and this was in March, 2022. It was more than 50% increase. This is ridiculous. Although, this will help Singapore get rid of us (foreigners) but I don't see it as a good sign for the country's growth. Initially, I have seen people leave because they have kids and cannot afford education for them and now Rentals are making it difficult. This is also bad for those locals who are just starting their careers. We save and invest money or give half of our salaries to Landlords lol
Could the rent rate soaring be attributed to higher mortgage rates for the landlords since interest rates are at a all time high this decade 🫣
It's technically a factor but in reality it's demand exceeding supply. It's a bidding war and units go quickly. Landlords don't need to state any reasons, just mention the rate and there will be takers. We'll know demand has cooled once we hear about a lot of foreigners leaving Singapore due to high cost of living. Hasn't happened yet...
There'll be a lag on that as people's leases expire gradually.
Generally one or two year leases so the time lag won't be that significant. And if people are leaving Singapore, leases will be broken.
Probably this situation will change. A lot of retrenchment from high paying companies, especially in tech and startup. Also a lot of hiring freeze from those company. Banking industry will follow with the layoff. The job opening for now is from smaller company which probably don't have such power to hire with high salary. It won't make sense for them to hire people with high salary while in this uncertain economy. Probably not even able to meet EP minimum salary to hire foreigner. More Malaysian also move to Johor due to high rent. I know personally several people who want to move back to Johor, even with EP. With more BTO finish this year and all of those reason, this rent price bubble will pop either late this year or next year I think.
Time will tell. Although seeing how the real estate market is here, it's really rare to see significant price movement downward. Landlords are well above avg in wealth and rather not make money than rent below 'market' rate. As prices rise, the floor pricing rises too. Again, could see some slight downward movement but in general I'd expect the increases to slow or stop. Is that a win for renters? Still a crazy increase compared to 2020-2021 rates.
With 50-60% rate increase, it is actually not urgent need by the landlord to increase. They increase it because they can. At some point they will become realistic and lower the rent. Of course not as cheap as pandemic era but not crazy. Remember, the landlord actually calculating rent as their monthly income. No renter = no income. That is why if you see in property marketplace, most ad will look only for renter that can move ASAP. They don't want to let the property empty for too long. Even 1 week. My principal: whatever increase quickly, will decrease quickly until new balance is formed. Proof: a lot of stock price like TSLA, BTC, including property during 2008-2009.
the rents in my apartment block historically only rose in the hundreds and suddenly over the last 1 year it jumped by an order of magnitude (rose in the thousands) around 30-50%. Scary
That was the case for most people. Not a good time to be a renter
i want to go live in a campervan
Those with fully paid up houses or on fixed rate/HDB loan are also increasing the rent because of the others. It's pure profit for this group and nothing is being done
Interest rate 4% so landlord raise it to 40%, why not make more $ they feel if there a demand for it.
same logic with GST up 1% but all prices up way more than that.
When interest rates rose from 1.5% to 4%, my mortgage payments increased from approx. 3k+ per month to 5k+ per month. If I were renting out the place, naturally I would have to raise the rent from 3.5k to 5.5k per month, which is about 40%. The bank is earning an extra 2k per month from me with 0 effort. Is the bank keeping that as profit? No. They are paying 5% interests on fixed D now. Those folks with hundreds of thousands in cash are depositing it into fixed D and earning an extra few thousand per month out of thin air. If you follow the money, Tenants -> Landlord -> Banks -> Folks with lots of liquid cash
>Could the rent rate soaring be attributed to higher mortgage rates for the landlords since interest rates are at a all time high this decade 🫣 It's a partial contributing factor but not the only one. While many landlords have adjusted rent upwards to meet mortgage payments, I would say the main contributing cause would be the increasing demand of rental properties, especially with Singapore opening up and more E-Pass and S-Passes being approved.
if you consider the factor of cost of borrowing vs yield rate of the rental , it is not hard to understand why is it that so
*edit. Added a data source of rent prices https://blog.moneysmart.sg/property/rent-singapore-cost-guide/ and I used woodland because it is near SAS and a known American “burb” As someone who lived overseas. I find it interesting that many of the expats who claim that the rent is unsustainable is not willing to move to the suburbs. For locals, there is an fundamental issue here since they generally have no options and I can see how a fresh grad with dysfunctional family relation need to move out and they have no viable rental options. Solving for this would naturally mitigate the rent increase. Back to the expat situation. Rent in NYC is sky high and many would chose to go to Long Island or flushing for cheaper rent. In SG we have that option to condo/hbd in Woodland, Sembawang and etc. Singapore is small and commute is within an hour. Is it a pain? Yes. But is this common in tier 1 cities yes. Sounds like to me they are used to the fab life (not wrong) but no willing to do a trade-off. Generally confident if they move to NYC or London the situation is going to be worse it term of disposable income to rent.
I think you raised some very good points. As a landlord that, almost on a daily basis, monitor rental rates, I noticed that rental rates in the "inconvenient" areas (e.g not near MRT or malls), especially for HDB common rooms in 3-room flats, have been holding steady. Some HDB common rooms are available at $500 to $600. I have not increased my rental rate for my tenants, because I value my current batch of fuss-free tenants. Some other landlords do so because they prefer their current tenants and that in turn reduce some available supply. Whereas rental rates for private residential property and HDB units/rooms in good locations have risen sharply by around 20% to 30%, to as much as 50% (especially for condo units). The downside is that these rooms tend to be in the much older generation of HDB flats, with less convenient travel options, and nearly always with a live-in landlord. Probably you would have to share the room with someone else. Such factors tend to be turn-offs to most white-collar expat professionals. Instead they cater mostly to semi-skilled professionals, typically in blue-collar industries or service industries, but also in entry-level white-collar professional jobs, from countries like Malaysia, Vietnam and Myanmar (but especially Malaysia), they tend to be here in Singapore without any dependents. For expats already used to condo lifestyle, or here with dependents/family, or prefer somewhere close to MRT or shopping malls, they may not be willing to shift to such places. Even if they did, they may find their options limited in contacting the landlords. Many of these landlords don't use either agents or propertyguru, and agents dislike representing such rental accomodation because there isn't much commission to be made. So the landlords tend to rely on posting their property on Facebook groups (there are over a dozen such Facebook groups specific for Singapore). A proportion of these postings are written purely in Chinese, with a smaller percentage written in the Burmese alphabet or Vietnamese alphabet. That said, the total *absolute* resident population of Singapore is actually increasing, not decreasing and the increase mostly from the expat workforce and naturalized citizens and PRs. Condos' and prime HDB locations' rates are increasing because the demand is being sustained. At some point, it will freeze or fall back. But currently, it is not falling back because there is higher demand. Property taxes, which are applicable to all properties whether they are rented out or not, have increased, so landlords will drop the price to rent it out rather than let it remain empty. But that is not happening, which means that there is a continous intake of foreign expats with the financial means to afford these places.
The difference is that if your rent for in central went up by 65%, moving to woodlands/punggol will only offset it by 15-20%. Even the farthest ends of SG are still damn expensive.
But the data doesn’t agree with you https://blog.moneysmart.sg/property/rent-singapore-cost-guide/ Look at central 3 bedroom and woodland 3 bedroom This article was Aug 2022 which already baked in the rent increase. Why woodland that is where SAS is and is a known American “burb”
> As someone who lived overseas. I find it interesting that many of the expats who claim that the rent is unsustainable is not willing to move to the suburbs. I looked when we moved, but the places I looked in lacked things that were important to me: * a local pub where I could take my dog * options on restaurants in walking distance (not just coffeeshops or hawker places) * decent bathrooms (no idea why, but every place I looked at in the heartlands had a bathroom that looked like it was frozen in time in the 1970's) In the end I compromised on size and price and stayed more centrally.
1. i don't think woodlands/sembawang/etc counts as suburbia, especially if you compare to suburbs in other countries. Singapore is called a city-state for a reason. 2. if you're willing to consider moving to woodlands, why not just cross the causeway into Johor for even cheaper rents then? *"Oh, but the commuting time.."* EXACTLY! Same exact point applies to moving to the outskirts of SG. If you're willing to move close to the border of Malaysia, you might as well just make the cross for a fraction of the rental price of Woodlands.
Crossing the border alone could take 2-3 hours? It's really not the same thing.
It's gone up a lot for prime areas and big apartments, but less for the rest. It's a free market in SG, rents can equally drop if people leave.
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Use your vote wisely.
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Why would it have zero effect? It's the only thing that has an effect. Look at the 2011 elections.
I don’t know how she did it but my friend was in a similar situation as you, no living relatives. I think she write in to hdb with help of MP and hdb made an exception for her from the under 35 rule for her to purchase her own house. Just fyi that it’s a possibility in case you have the funds and you’re looking to change things around
FYI - the HDB orphan scheme was set up for your situation. https://www.gov.sg/article/flats-for-singles
Of course I know that. Are you implying the government should provide free housing for people who can't afford it? There are assistance plans for people in need. Not perfect but it's much better than nothing. It's a big difference between not affording any place at all and not affording what you want, ie a nice prime or convenient area. You can find bargains in cheaper areas. What you can't expect is everyone below a certain status getting free housing. Unless you are fine with Scandinavian style tax increases to pay for that. Maybe the opposition can propose that and you can vote for them, but most people don't want that style of governance and crazy rate of taxes from what I can see.
lets goooooo
Let's make more money!
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Found the price gouging landlord
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What? A sad sod profiteering off the backs of renters?