Published 6 August 2026
Outside central, tenants pay the biggest shoebox premium. In the core central region, they pay the smallest.
By Realila
Tenants pay more per square foot for a small unit everywhere in Singapore. How much more depends sharply on where it is: about 47% in the core central region (CCR), 51% in the rest of central region (RCR), and 58% in the outside central region (OCR). That ordering has held in every one of the last nine years without once crossing. The rest of what we found about shoebox units in Singapore is on the shoebox units guide.
We reported the market-wide shoebox rent premium at roughly 52%, flat since 2017. That was an average across three quite different markets. Split by region, the premium runs from 47% to 58%, and the gap between them has never closed.
Key takeaways
- The shoebox rent premium is smallest in the CCR and largest in the OCR, and the ordering held in all nine years. The three regions
- CCR shoebox rents are the highest in dollars, at $7.02 per square foot against $5.60 in the OCR. The premium is lowest there because CCR family rents are higher still. Reading the tables
- All three premiums drifted down modestly (three to four points over nine years) with no convergence between them. What moved
- Read against the regional price finding, CCR shoebox stock is the weaker half of the return on both measures. Against the price picture
Three regions, nine years
Median monthly rent per square foot, measured across the same projects at both ends of the period. Shoebox is URA's 40–50 sqm band, which ends at the same 538 sqft line as its shoebox definition. Family-sized is the 90–130 sqm bands, 969–1,399 sqft.
Core Central (CCR)
| Year | Shoebox | Family | Premium | Projects (S / F) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | $5.16 | $3.44 | +50.0% | 63 / 295 |
| 2018 | $5.16 | $3.44 | +50.2% | 67 / 312 |
| 2019 | $5.16 | $3.44 | +50.1% | 70 / 326 |
| 2020 | $4.95 | $3.36 | +47.4% | 70 / 322 |
| 2021 | $5.16 | $3.47 | +48.6% | 70 / 323 |
| 2022 | $6.19 | $4.11 | +50.8% | 70 / 318 |
| 2023 | $7.43 | $4.95 | +50.0% | 70 / 320 |
| 2024 | $7.01 | $4.76 | +47.3% | 69 / 311 |
| 2025 | $7.02 | $4.78 | +46.9% | 70 / 315 |
Rest of Central (RCR)
| Year | Shoebox | Family | Premium | Projects (S / F) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | $4.10 | $2.65 | +54.6% | 146 / 381 |
| 2018 | $4.03 | $2.65 | +51.7% | 154 / 387 |
| 2019 | $4.10 | $2.65 | +54.6% | 162 / 413 |
| 2020 | $4.13 | $2.61 | +58.2% | 159 / 397 |
| 2021 | $4.23 | $2.69 | +57.2% | 156 / 406 |
| 2022 | $5.11 | $3.19 | +60.4% | 159 / 390 |
| 2023 | $6.19 | $3.94 | +57.4% | 156 / 390 |
| 2024 | $5.99 | $3.89 | +54.0% | 155 / 391 |
| 2025 | $6.09 | $4.04 | +50.8% | 153 / 375 |
Outside Central (OCR)
| Year | Shoebox | Family | Premium | Projects (S / F) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | $3.72 | $2.30 | +61.5% | 109 / 377 |
| 2018 | $3.61 | $2.32 | +55.6% | 111 / 390 |
| 2019 | $3.72 | $2.30 | +61.5% | 123 / 406 |
| 2020 | $3.72 | $2.30 | +61.5% | 118 / 393 |
| 2021 | $3.92 | $2.42 | +61.9% | 121 / 411 |
| 2022 | $4.75 | $2.91 | +63.3% | 118 / 394 |
| 2023 | $5.99 | $3.63 | +64.8% | 119 / 408 |
| 2024 | $5.63 | $3.54 | +59.0% | 118 / 377 |
| 2025 | $5.60 | $3.55 | +57.5% | 114 / 386 |
The last column shows how many separate projects each median is drawn from (shoebox first, family second).
Reading the tables
The premium column and the dollar columns say different things, and it is easy to read one as the other.
CCR shoebox rents are the highest in Singapore. $7.02 per square foot in 2025, against $6.09 in the RCR and $5.60 in the OCR. A small unit in the CCR rents for more per square foot than a small unit anywhere else.
Its premium is nonetheless the lowest. That is because CCR family-sized units rent for $4.78 psf, well above the $3.55 an OCR family unit fetches. Both CCR lines are high; the gap between them is proportionally narrower.
So "the CCR premium is lowest" is a statement about the ratio inside that region, not about the rent a landlord collects.
What moved, and what did not
All three premiums are lower in 2025 than in 2017: CCR by 3.1 points, RCR by 3.8, OCR by 4.0. Modest, and roughly equal.
What did not move is the ordering. OCR sits above RCR sits above CCR in every single year. The lines never touch, let alone cross. Whatever sets the shoebox rent premium in each region has been stable for nine years, through a pandemic, the sharp rise in rents in 2022 and 2023, and two rounds of cooling measures.
Rents rose steeply in 2022 and 2023, lifting all six lines (CCR shoebox rent went from $5.16 to $7.43 in two years), and then all six flattened. Ratios barely noticed.
Against the price picture
Our regional price article found the opposite ends of the market a long way apart: a CCR shoebox is worth 4.5% less per square foot than in 2017, while an OCR one gained 26%.
Put the two together and they point the same way. CCR shoebox stock has the weakest capital performance and the smallest rent premium. OCR shoebox stock has the strongest capital performance and the largest rent premium. On both halves of what an owner earns, the same ordering appears.
That is a coherent picture rather than a contradiction, and it makes the regional finding harder to dismiss as a quirk of the sales data. Two independent datasets, collected differently, agree on which end of the market has held up.
What this does not tell you
- Rental yield. Rent premium is not rental yield. Rental yield needs a price as well, and we cover it market-wide in the rental yield article. A regional rental yield breakdown requires both a rental panel and a sale panel in each cell and is a separate piece of work.
- Net income. These are gross rents. Maintenance, property tax, agent commission, vacancy and income tax all come out first.
- Why tenants pay it. Rental contracts record the rent, not the tenant's reasoning. Anything about who rents small units and why would be inference.
- Your unit. Medians across dozens to hundreds of projects. Individual buildings, stacks and lease terms vary widely.
Method and data notes. Rental data to February 2026.
URA non-landed rental contracts, 2017 to 2025. Market segments are URA's: CCR is the core central region, RCR the rest of central, OCR outside central.
URA reports rental floor area in 10 sqm bands rather than exact areas, so rent per square foot uses the midpoint of each band. Shoebox uses the 40–50 sqm band, which converts to 431–538 sqft and shares its upper boundary with URA's 50 sqm shoebox threshold. Family-sized uses the 90–130 sqm bands, 969–1,399 sqft. Because both sides use midpoints, the ratio between them is more reliable than either level on its own.
Each band runs on its own fixed panel: projects with at least three rental contracts in that band in both the 2017–2019 and 2023–2025 windows, so every column describes the same projects at both ends. Medians are taken across projects rather than pooled across contracts, which would let the changing mix of what was leased masquerade as a change in rent.
Coverage was checked before use: all twelve months are present in every year, and 96.5% of rental records in these bands carry a market segment. 2026 is excluded: only two months of rental data exist.
Rental data to February 2026.
More from Realila
- In 2017, half of new 2 bedroom buyers came from an HDB address. In 2025, it was under two in five
Among new-launch 2 bedroom buyers whose address type is known, 53.6% gave an HDB address in 2017 and 37.7% in 2025. Resale fell half as far, from 40.3% to 33.1%. The retreat sits in the suburbs, where the new-launch share fell from 68.0% to 47.5% while the core central region moved three points, and in resale stock over sixteen years old, where it held flat for five years and then fell in each of the last three.
- In 2017 half of new 3 bedroom buyers came from an HDB address, and by 2025 it was under a third
Among new-launch 3 bedroom buyers whose address type is known, 52.1% gave an HDB address in 2017 and 28.9% in 2025. Resale fell far less, from 37.0% to 27.2%, and the two crossed in 2022. The retreat is sharpest at the large end: 4 bedroom new-launch fell 26.9 points against 13.5 for 1 bedroom. And the side the upgrader left is the one that returned less.
- A new 3 bedroom outside central rents for more per square foot than a 26-year-old one in the core central region, and that first became true in 2020
In 2025 a 3 bedroom in a building under five years old rented for S$4.92 per square foot outside central, against S$4.02 for one over 26 years old in the core central region. In 2019 the comparison ran the other way. The age premium roughly doubled over nine years, from 1.25 times to 1.65, and in 2020 it grew large enough to overtake the thing everyone assumes decides rent.
Every number in this post comes from Realila Research, dated to when it was true. For now we publish research notes from the platform to answer the community's questions; the platform itself opens to the public later.
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