Singapore pushed New York off the top spot for the strongest growth in residential rents in the final quarter of last year, fueled by a supply crunch and strong demand.
The city-state saw annual rents jump 28 percent in the quarter from a year earlier, Knight Frank said in a report.
New York followed with 19 percent growth, while London and Toronto took the third and fourth spots, a survey of prime residential rents across 10 cities showed.
Photo: Bloomberg
Singapore’s soaring rents — driven partly due to a lack of supply of new housing during the COVID-19 pandemic — have been a source of consternation for residents, sapping household budgets at a time when living costs are surging.
New visa rules to attract foreign talent are likely to supplement tenant demand.
The city has 17,000 private homes that are set for completion this year, which could provide some relief to accommodation pressures, said Leonard Tay, Knight Frank’s head of research in Singapore.
Ranked at the bottom of the list is Hong Kong, where rents fell 6.4 percent year-on-year as international companies deferred expansion plans, the report said.
Demand from tenants has dwindled as people left the territory during the pandemic.
While prime rents have remained robust across many global cities, the overall rate of annual growth is starting to slow, Knight Frank said.
Separately, Singapore Changi Airport has regained its title as the world’s best airport, after losing its long-held crown to Qatar for two years running during the height of pandemic travel restrictions.
Singapore pushed Doha’s Hamad International Airport into second place, with Tokyo’s Haneda Airport bagging third, in this year’s Skytrax World Airport Awards.
The US was conspicuous by its absence in the top 10.
Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport was Europe’s top performer, up one spot to fifth place, while Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was the highest ranked North American airport, languishing in 18th place, but an improvement from 27th place last year.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
RSS