OCR sees the steepest decline in private rents

It's difficult time to be a landlord at this moment.

The rental index continued on its decline as well in Q3 2016 with projects in OCR reflecting the steepest decline at 2.4%.

According to ERA Real Estate Executive Director Eugene Lim, OCR houses the majority of the private projects, competition for tenants is the stiffest and hence downward pressure on rents is the strongest.

"As layoffs are becoming more commonplace in certain industries, such as finance; and oil and gas, the rental situation is not expected to improve in the near term," Lim explained.

He noted that landlords will have to bear the brunt of the blows as tenant pool become increasingly limited and price sensitive.

"Landlords will have to offer extremely attractive packages to attract or even retain tenants," he argued.

Lim furthered, "For 2016, we expect the overall rental decline to be in the range of 3% to 4% but things are likely to get worse should more bad news surface."