Private residential rents rebound in Q1: report

Savills expects rents to remain broadly flat for 2026 amid manageable supply.

Private residential rents staged a modest recovery in Q1 2026 as leasing activity improved, according to Savills.

Leasing transactions rose 4.0% QoQ to 20,862 deals, from 20,051 in Q4 2025. On a year-on-year basis, leasing demand was broadly stable, increasing 0.6% from 20,744 transactions.

The rebound was driven mainly by non-landed homes, where leasing activity rose 4.1% QoQ to 19,784 transactions. Leasing activity for landed homes also increased 3.6% to 1,078 deals.

By sub-market, the Outside Central Region recorded the strongest leasing growth at 6.5% QoQ, followed by the Rest of Central Region at 4.3% and the Core Central Region at 0.9%.

Rental index for islandwide non-landed private homes rose 0.4% QoQ in Q1, reversing the 0.1% decline in the previous quarter.

Rental growth was led by the OCR, where rents rose 1.0% QoQ, and the CCR, where rents increased 0.5%. RCR rents slipped 0.2%, marking its first quarterly decline since Q2 2024.

Savills’ high-end non-landed residential rental index also rose 1.7% QoQ to $6.15 per square foot (psf) per month, marking its sixth consecutive quarter of increase.

Despite limited completions, vacant private residential stock rose 2.3% QoQ to 26,158 units, lifting the overall vacancy rate by 0.2 percentage points to 6.2%.

Only 911 private residential units, excluding executive condominiums, were completed in Q1. A further 5,371 units are expected to be delivered over the rest of 2026.

Savills said market sentiment on the ground appears more subdued than the headline transaction data suggests, as more tenants may be renewing leases instead of moving to another location.

“Despite persistent global economic and geopolitical volatility, rental levels are likely to hold firm in 2026, underpinned by limited new supply,” said Alan Cheong, executive director at Savills Singapore.

Savills maintained its view that private residential rents are likely to remain broadly flat for the full year, supported by manageable supply and resilient underlying rental demand.

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