A four-bedroom flat in Block 38A, Mindi Mia Road, was rented out for $4,600 in October, a record for The River Vista @ Kallang in the HDB area.

Completed in 2012, the 26-story apartment building is less than a 10-minute walk to Boon Keng MRT station.

The unit for this rental, 92 sqm, is well furnished and located on a high floor with a good view.

Records of recent rental transactions in the neighborhood show that a four-bedroom, 89-square-meter apartment in the same block rented in May 2022 was rented for only $2,650, a difference of nearly $2,000 from the latest rent.

Flat rents continue to rise in 2022, with more and more such units renting out for more than $4,000.

In September, someone rented a four-bedroom apartment in Block 39A next door for $4,300 a month. Not far away, a four-bedroom in Block 113C on McNair Road was rented for $4,600 in August.

In the city, for example, a four-bedroom HDB flat in Pinnacle@Duxton, Tanjong Pagar Dashrim, was rented out for $5,500 in September, followed by about $5,000 in leases.

The overall HDB rents have risen for 27 consecutive months, up 3.2% in September from a year earlier and 24.7% year-on-year, according to the September forecast.

However, such high rents are still in the minority in the HOS rental market. The overall median rent for a four-room apartment is $2,600, with the highest being $3,350 in Central District and the lowest being $2,275 in Bedok.

Compared to the pre-crown disease epidemic, the demand for rental accommodation now comes not only from foreigners working or studying locally, but also from many Singaporeans.

Some locals have returned from abroad, some want more living space and moved out to rent a room, and some have to rent a room temporarily because of the delay in completing their new homes.

As of September 30, private homeowners must wait 15 months after selling their homes before they can purchase unsubsidized resale homes, which further pushes up the demand for rental housing.

As soon as an advertisement for a unit for rent was placed online recently, more than 10 people called to ask about it, and some tenants agreed to sign without even seeing the property, just looking at the photos and video.

Currently, a four-bedroom HDB flat. The same unit rented for about $3,200 in the first half of the year, while other units have recently rented for $4,500.

As of the end of September, about 5% of the sold apartments were rented out by the owners.