While HDB flats are being sold for more than S$1 million, the rental market is also heating up.
Flats are now being rented out for exorbitant amounts across town, with the latest one in the quaint estate of Tiong Bahru.
The four-room unit was rented out for a tidy sum of S$6,200 a month.
Source: Google Maps
This is reportedly the highest rental amount paid for a flat in 2022.
The flat in question is in Block 17 Seng Poh Road, reported Shin Min Daily News.
It’s one of a cluster of old four-storey HDB blocks built by the Singapore Improvement Trust, the predecessor of the HDB.
While it’s near amenities like Tiong Bahru Market & Food Centre and a community club, the biggest draw of the area is undoubtedly its old-school charm and cool cafes.
According to PropertyGuru, Block 17 was completed in 1949 — meaning that it’s already 74 years old and has just 25 years left on its 99-year lease.
This could account for the fact that the 1,200 square foot (sq ft) unit is bigger than the average four-roomer — typically about 1,000 sq ft, according to HDB.
Its most recent rental transaction commenced in December 2022 at S$6,200 per month, or about S$5 per sq ft (psf).
A check on HDB’s website confirmed the transaction.
That figure breaks the HDB flat rental record for 2022, Shin Min declared.
However, another flat at nearby Block 35 Lim Liak Street was also rented out for S$6,200 in December 2022, according to HDB’s records.
According to PropertyGuru, Block 35 was completed in 1973 — meaning that it’s 50 years old and still has 49 years left on its 99-year lease.
Source: Google Maps
However, the unit in question is a three-room flat and is smaller than the Seng Poh Road one at 947 sq ft.
That means its rental is about S$6.50 psf and higher than the other unit, going by that metric.
Besides the units in Tiong Bahru, there are at least three other four-room flats being rented out for more than S$6,000, reported Shin Min.
Two of them are in the Pinnacle@Duxton and one more is on Jalan Tenteram in Whampoa.
Experts told the newspaper that the number of four-room flats rented out for more than S$4,000 in Singapore has doubled in the last two months.
They follow the four-roomer in Bendeemer that was rented out for S$4,600 in October 2022.
While that seemed to be an unthinkable sum at the time, it appears to have been quickly eclipsed in a matter of months.
Even single rooms are going for competitive prices now, it seems — an HDB room in Toa Payoh was recently rented out for S$1,200 month, a property agent claimed.
This is despite the landlord imposing “prison-like” restrictions on the tenant.
As property prices have recently gone through the roof in Singapore, the Government has introduced some property cooling measures.
However, they may be a need to do something about exorbitant rental prices too.
Though some tenants might be willing to splash out, others may end up effectively priced out of the market.
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Featured image adapted from Google Maps.
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