Residential leasing demand jumps as employers make last-ditch effort to hire foreign workers

They’re beating the Fair Consideration Framework deadline.

The residential property market has found an unlikely ally in these tough times. It seems that the efforts of employers rushing to hire foreign workers have caused the leasing volume of private residential properties to climb in the second quarter, a report by Savills revealed today.

The report cited statistics by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), which showed that the leasing volume of private residential properties excluding ECs reached a high of 15,053 transactions in Q2.

This shows a quarterly increase of 12.2% or a 5.2% year-on-year growth. A total of 28,464 leases were inked island-wide in the first half of the year, an increase of 5.9% compared with the 26,887 leases recorded over the same period last year.

Savills notes that this is despite the earlier anticipation of a shrinking pool of overseas nationals in Singapore following the tightening of immigration policies.

“A possible reason for the healthy leasing demand could be the influx of foreigners who brought forward their plans to relocate here, fearing more moves to tighten immigration. In addition, employers might have also made a last dash to expedite their applications for employment pass holders before the Fair Consideration Framework (FCF) comes into force in the third quarter,” the report noted.