Singapore's rentals have risen sharply, in some cases by as much as 75%, causing some expat tenants to lament, "The rentals are too high to afford, I don't deserve Singapore!"
After rising further in December last year, housing rents in Singapore seem to show no sign of slowing down. Some expatriate tenants working in Singapore have opted to quit their jobs and return home because they cannot afford the high rents, lamenting that they are "not talented enough for Singapore."
"8 Vision News Singapore reported yesterday that the latest estimates from property websites 99.co and SRX showed that rents for private flats rose 34.4 per cent year-on-year, while HDB HDB rents also rose 28.5 per cent year-on-year.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) rental index released earlier this month showed that the overall rental index rose by almost 30 per cent last year, a record high in the past 15 years.
Citing URA data, Christine Sun, vice president of industrial research and consultancy at OrangeEase, said that housing rents in Serita were the fastest rising, up 33 per cent last year, followed by MacPherson and Braddell, then Queenstown and Tiong Bahru.
MediaCorp English news network CNA spoke to a number of tenants to find out more about their rental situation and the challenges they face.
Cecilia Li, a permanent resident of Singapore who has been studying and working locally since 2004, went back to her hometown in China during the coronary epidemic until June last year when she decided to return to Singapore to work again.
Cecilia Li was interviewed and said that back in 2018, she rented a room in Telok Blangah for S$450 (about RM1,462) per month, and last year, she rented a room without air conditioning in Tiong Bahru for S$750 (about RM2,436), which has risen to over S$1,000 (about RM3,249) as rents continue to rise.
Cecilia Li, who is from Chengdu, China, and works in the publishing industry, said that she actually receives less than S$3,000 (about RM9,747) a month and has to leave Singapore before her rental contract expires because she cannot make ends meet.
