Covid-19 may have left much of the Singapore property market unscathed in 2020, but the economic effects of the pandemic has undoubtably impacted investor-landlords. According to the URA Rental Index, condo rents declined by 0.5% y-o-y in 2020. The signs of a lacklustre condo rental market was also obvious in terms of rental volume. This shouldn’t come as a shock. After all, the number of EP holders in Singapore declined from 193,700 in Dec 2019 to 189,700 as at June 2020—a 2.1% decrease. Additionally, a significant number of expats/EP holders that continue to remain employed in Singapore had to settle for pay cuts as business attempted to cope with business disruptions and an economic recession caused by the pandemic. These foreign professional tenants would have had to lower their rental budget and resettle to more affordable locations. This is exactly what rental statistics revealed. Breaking down rental volume into different regions and bedroom types, we see a more elaborate picture of how condo rental volume across regions have varied in 2020 versus 2019. The worst hit are two-bedroom condos in the CCR, which saw transaction volume decline by 6.2% y-o-y... Continue Reading