Leasing contracts for private residential properties (excluding executive condominiums (ECs)) across Singapore in Q3/2025 experienced a 24.2% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) upswing, rising from 21,638 in Q2/2025 to 26,882.

This is primarily attributable seasonability factors like the start of the academic year for major international schools. This also represents a 3.2% YoY increase from the 26,037 contracts recorded for the same period last year and stands as the highest quarterly volume since Q3/2021, when 27,145 contracts were registered.

Landed homes led the quarterly increase with a sharp 36.4% rise, followed by non-landed units, which experienced a slightly lower growth of 23.6%. Within the non-landed segment, the Outside Central Region (OCR) experienced the strongest QoQ increase at 24.6%, followed by the Rest of Central Region (RCR) and the Core Central Region (CCR), which posted QoQ gains of 24.2% and 21.7%, respectively.

The Year-on-Year (YOY) drop in rental volume for island-wide landed homes of 7.6% in Q3/2025 may reflect a shrinking pool of senior-level expatriate professionals and their families, as well as reduced housing allowances due to company cost-control measures amid ongoing global economic uncertainty. In contrast, leasing activity for private apartments and condominiums continued to rise by 4.0% YoY, with the CCR, RCR and OCR increasing by 4.2%, 3.8% and 3.9%, respectively.

Latest statistics showed that the number of Employment Pass (EP) holders declined from 205,400 in Dec 2023 to 202,100 in Dec 2024 and further to 201,200 by Jun 2025, signaling a gradual contraction since 2024.

Alan Cheong, Executive Director, Research and Consultancy, Savills Singapore, “All may be well with the leasing market for now, but the road ahead is clouded by business uncertainty.”

Among the top five non-landed residential projects with the highest number of leasing contracts in Q3, Normanton Park rose from third place in Q2 to claim the top spot with 199 deals, while The Sail @ Marina Bay slipped one position to third place with 156 leases.

Midtown Modern, following its completion in Q1/2025, ranked second, supported by its direct connectivity to Bugis Interchange MRT Station, a growing working population in the Bugis/City Hall micro-market and the abundance of retail and F&B amenities in the vicinity.

Parc Riviera and Lakeville ranked fourth and fifth with tenants likely drawn primarily from professionals working at the adjacent International Business Park, and international students and families from the Canadian International School (Lakeside Campus) respectively.

Alan adds, “While the strong rental showing and the decline in vacancies appear to show a resilient leasing market, it may be masking hidden weaknesses. We believe that much of the rental increase in Q3/2025 was probably front loaded to July and August as most major international schools here begin their year in mid-August”

Moving ahead, the pace of rental market activity may moderate because business uncertainty has remained elevated for over a year and the Liberation Day tariffs have not helped. Companies may soon begin taking remedial action to reduce operation costs even more significantly than before. Although the URA rental index had increased 2.4% year-to-date, the forecast for private residential rents to remain flat for 2025, give or take some minor deviations from that baseline.

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