Rents for posh condos dip 1.4% in Q4

It's down to S$4.88 per sq ft per month.

Savills notes that based on data released by the URA, island-wide median rents for condos and apartments (excluding executive condominiums) reached a new high of S$3.75 per sq ft per month in October.

This translates to a 0.5% month-onmonth (MoM) and 7% YoY increase. Median rents for houses on the other hand slipped 0.4% MoM in October to S$2.65 per sq ft per month.

The total value of all leasing transactions for the i rst ten months of this year reached S$208 million, surpassing the yearly totals for the period from 2000 to 2010. With contributions from the final two months of the year, the total transaction value in 2012 is poised to surpass the S$218 million record set in 2011.  

The rental market for luxury homes softened for the sixth consecutive quarter. Rents of high-end condos tracked by Savills showed a 1.4% quarter-on-quarter dip to S$4.88 per sq ft per month in Q4. On a YoY basis, prime rents fell by 7.4% from S$5.27 per sq ft per month in Q4/2011.

The fall could be due to more intense competition from an increased supply of high-end completions over the past few months and a lesser number of big budget tenants who are concurrently facing rental budget constraints.