This chart aborts hope that monthly rents would fall this year

Housing completions declined sharply in 4Q12.

4Q12 saw vacancy rates dip from 6.1% to 5.4% for private homes and 6.9% to 6.1% for non-landed units, excluding executive condominiums (EC). Rents also climbed for another quarter, led by 1.2% qoq rental growth in the OCR and 0.6-0.7% qoq growth in the central region.

Data points might appear to point towards a more-resilient-than-expected physical market but CIMB thinks otherwaise.

"We think that the trend is temporary, driven by a sharp decline in 4Q12 physical completions matched with another quarter of stronger take-up. A
pick-up in physical completions in 2013-2015 should put downward pressure on both rents and occupancy rates."

The chart on the right show that housing completions dropped almost thrice in 4Q12 to 1,200+ units than the previous quarter's 3,400+. Net take-up meanwhile rose to more than 60% to 3,400 units from 2,100.